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THE TEACHING OF CHRIST 



By G. CAMPBELL MORGAN 



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The 

Teaching of Christ 



By 

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN, D.D. 

Author of "The Crises of The Christ," "The 
Analyzed Bible " etc. 




New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 1913, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 






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Chicago: 125 North Wabash Ave. 
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3 4 3 8 3 5 
H* t 



Contents 



The Claim of Christ as to the Value of His 

Teaching i 



A. THE TEACHING OF CHRIST CON- 
CERNING PERSONALITIES 

I. God 15 

II. Himself •••;«•• 29 

III. The Spirit : 45 

IV. Angels 75 

V. Satan and Demons . . • • .91 

VI. Man 109 

B. THE TEACHING OF CHRIST CONCERNING 
SIN AND SALVATION 

I. Sin : . 125 

II. Salvation 139 

III. His Saving Mission 153 

IV. Human Responsibility . • . . 171 

V. Sanctity 183 

v 



vi Contents 

C. THE TEACHING OF CHRIST CONCERN- 
ING THE KINGDOM OF GOD 

I. The Fundamental Conception . .197 

II. Different Phases of the One Fact . 211 

III. The Existing Anarchy .... 229 

IV. The Redemptive Processes — The Cross . 245 

V. The Redemptive Processes — The Church 259 

VI. The Redemptive Processes — The Con- 

flict 277 

VII. The Crisis 295 

VIII. An Individual Application . . .311 
Index 325 



THE CLAIM OF CHRIST AS TO THE VALUE 
OF HIS TEACHING 



« Never man so spake." — John vii. 46. 



THE CLAIM OF CHRIST AS TO THE VALUE 
OF HIS TEACHING 

The declaration with which this introductory study 
is prefaced was made by impartial, and probably, in- 
different men, after listening to some of the things that 
Jesus said. 

Earlier in the chapter we find this statement : 

" The Pharisees heard the multitude murmuring these 
things concerning Him ; and the chief priests and the 
Pharisees sent officers to take Him." 1 

The outcome was — 

" The officers therefore came to the chief priests and 
Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why did ye not bring 
Him ? The officers answered, Never man so spake." 2 

I make use of these words of the officers, whatever 
they intended by them, as a declaration of my conviction 
that the words of Christ were not the words of a merely 
human teacher. 

My purpose in this series of meditations is to consider 
His teaching on some of the great themes of supreme 
interest to men, and I propose to do that in the simplest 
way possible. 

Let it be understood that we start on the assumption 
that the New Testament view of the Person of Christ is to 
be accepted as true. I am not proposing a study of the 
words of Jesus, in order to lead to Christ. I rather desire 
to lead those who have already found Christ to a study of 
His words. 

1 John vii. 32. 3 Ibid., vii. 45-46. 

3 



4 The Claim of Christ as to 

In this, our first meditation, I propose to examine the 
claims which Christ made as to His own teaching. I take 
up the writings of other men, all of them valuable in greater 
or less degree — and it is always interesting to notice a man's 
estimate of the value of the things he says himself — and 
this I have observed ; that the greatest human teachers have 
always been reticent as to the ultimate authority of their 
teaching. They have always admitted that there is room 
for interpretation, for question, for further investigation. 
That note is entirely absent from the teaching of Christ. 
There is no apology. He never said, It is natural therefore 
to suppose ; It may probably be ; or Consult the authorities. 

Scattered through the Gospels there are many statements 
which He made concerning His teaching, some incidental, 
others outstanding, special, and definite ; and it is impos- 
sible, and unnecessary for our present purpose, to deal with 
the whole of these. I propose to refer to the principal 
statements which I have described as outstanding, special, 
and definite ; and in doing so we shall find two words em- 
ployed in reference to His teaching which it may be well 
for us at once to consider. 

Jesus sometimes spoke of " My words," sometimes of 
" My sayings," of " these words of Mine," " these sayings 
of Mine." We must, however, lay no emphasis at all upon 
this distinction, because our translators have not maintained 
the distinction between the Greek words to which I refer. 
Those who read the New Testament in the Greek will be 
careful to distinguish between the words logos, and rhema ; 
for such distinction may make all the difference in the in- 
terpretation of a particular passage. While, in considering 
His claims as to the value of His teaching, we need not 
tarry very long with such examination, yet it is important 
that we recognize the distinction. 

John's Gospel opens with statements characterized by 



The Value of His Teaching 5 

awe-inspiring sublimity, and we are conscious of our inabil- 
ity to finally express their meaning. The suggestion of 
the opening statement is too mysterious, too high and too 
glorious for man's reaching, too profound for his fathom- 
ing. " In the beginning was the word." ' In that declar- 
ation, however, John employed the particular word to 
which we must first give our attention. It is the word 
logosy translated here u Word." The root from which the 
word is derived means, to lay side by side; therefore to 
collect, and to set in order. Consequently it suggests 
words so set together and framed as to express thought ; 
and therefore it refers to the thought itself, orderly and 
sequential, which is put together and expressed. When- 
ever we come to the word logos^ therefore, we must remem- 
ber its two values. The first is that of a method of ex- 
pression ; and the second is that of the truth which is ex- 
pressed. That is the word which most often occurs as we 
examine what our Lord had to say about His own teaching. 

The word rhema simply means articulate speech, some- 
thing beyond a mere sound ; a sound which is a method of 
expression, or a sound conveying a meaning. I do not in- 
tend to suggest that when Jesus spoke of His own sayings, 
and described them by the word rhema that He meant they 
were unimportant, for no saying of His could in any sense 
be unimportant. 

In this study I shall indicate the distinction between logos 
and rhema by translating the former, word or words ; and 
the latter, sayings. 

I propose, then, first a collocation of passages which 
reveal to us our Lord's estimate of the value of His own 
teaching. Having read these passages, we shall make a 
deduction of values, as preliminary to our future, and larger 
study. 

1 John i. i. 



6 The Claim of Christ as to 

Having first referred to the passages as they occur in the 
four Gospel stories, I shall then group them, so far as is 
possible, in the order in which they were spoken by the 
Lord. Finally, I shall attempt to make the deductions 
from them which are necessary to our subsequent studies. 

In Matthew there are two principal statements of our 
Lord concerning His own teaching : 

" Every one therefore which heareth these words of Mine 
and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, which 
built his house upon the rock ; and the rain descended, and 
the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that 
house ; and it fell not ; for it was founded upon the rock. 
And every one that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth 
them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built 
his house upon the sand ; and the rain descended, and the 
floods came, and the winds blew, and smote upon that 
house ; and it fell : and great was the fall thereof." J 

u Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall 
not pass away." 2 

The first statement concluded the Manifesto on the Mount. 

The final word was spoken in the midst of the Mani- 
festo of the ultimate movements of His Kingdom, the 
prophecy on Olivet. 

In the Gospel of Mark we find two principal declarations : 

" Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words 
in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man 
also shall be ashamed of him, when He cometh in the glory 
of His Father with the holy angels." 3 

" Heaven and earth shall pass away ; but My words shall 
not pass away." * 

In the Gospel of Luke we find the record of four great 
central claims of Jesus concerning His teaching : 

1 Matt. vii. 24-27. 3 Mark viii. 38. 

3 Ibid., xxiv. 35. 4 Ibid., xiii. 31. 




. The Value of His Teaching 7 

" Every one that cometh unto Me, and heareth My 
words, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like ; 
he is like a man building a house, who digged and went 
deep, and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when a 
flood arose, the stream brake against that house, and could 
not shake it; because it had been well builded. But he 
that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that built a house 
upon the earth without a foundation ; against which the 
stream brake, and straightway it fell in ; and the ruin of that 
house was great." * 

" For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My 
words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when He 
cometh in His own glory, and the glory of the Father, and 
of the holy angels." 2 

" Heaven and earth shall pass away ; but My words shall 
not pass away." 3 

" And He said unto them, These are My words which I 
spake unto you, while I was yet with you, how all things 
must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of 
Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning Me. 
. . And He said unto them, Thus it is written, that the 
Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third 
day ; and that repentance and remission of sins should be 
preached in His name unto all the nations, beginning from 
Jerusalem. Ye are witnesses of these things." 4 

In the Gospel of John we have three great central words : 

" Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My 
word, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath eternal life, 
and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death 
into life." 5 

There are two other statements in the course of the 

1 Luke vi. 47-49. 4 Ibid. t xxiv. 44-48. 

2 Ibid. t ix. 26. 6 John v. 24. 

3 Ibid.t xxi. 33. 



8 The Claim of Christ as to 

controversy that followed, which I desire to link with this 
first declaration : 

" The sayings that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and 
are life." » 

" Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep My wordy 
he shall never see death." 2 

Note in each case the repetition of the thought of life. 

The second of the great central words of this Gospel reads 
thus : 

"If any man hear My sayings, and keep them not, I judge 
him not j for I came not to judge the world, but to save the 
world. He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My say- 
ings, hath One that judgeth him ; the word that I spake, the 
same shall judge him in the last day." 3 

Speaking in the upper room, and under the shadow of the 
Cross, to His Father, our Lord said : 

" The sayings which Thou gavest Me I have given unto 
them." 4 

I at once confess that it seems to my own heart that the 
mere reading of these passages brings us into an atmosphere 
in which we are conscious of the august sublimity of Christ's 
conception of the value of His own teaching. My own con- 
viction is that there is not a single one of these passages that 
we can believe to be true if we deny the Deity of our Lord. 
And if the statement be questioned, then take any of these 
claims, and put them into the lips of any other teacher, and 
it must at once be seen how entirely and absolutely they are 
out of place. They are words which claim a full and final 
authority for the One Who uttered them. 

Now let me group them in chronological order. I do 
not set very much value upon this, but it is at least inter- 
esting to see, as far as possible, how His disciples heard His 
progressive claim as to His own teaching. 

1 John vi. 63. * Ibid., viii. 51. s Ibid., xii. 47, 48. 4 Ibid., xvii. 8. 



The Value of His Teaching 9 

I think the first in order is that recorded in the fifth 
chapter of John, in which He declared that His word 
believed, leads to the Father, and constitutes the medium 
of age-abiding life. 

Next in order came the word at the close of the great 
Manifesto in which He so clearly and deliberately claimed 
that His words constitute the foundation upon which men 
must build, unless in the stress of storm their building is to 
be destroyed ; or, in other words, that His teaching is the 
foundation of character. 

Next in order came the words that Mark records, and 
Luke also, in which our Lord declared that His words con- 
stitute the test of the inspiration of life, and therefore the 
test of nobility for to-day and forever. Whosoever is, 
here and now, " ashamed of Me and of My words, the Son 
of Man also shall be ashamed of him, when He cometh in 
the glory of His Father with the holy angels." 

The man who is to-day ashamed of the teaching of the 
Lord, does not accept His ideal, turns his life away from the 
revelation of character and nobility contained within His 
words ; makes certain the inexorable result that, in the day of 
glory, when the ideals of Christ are vindicated, Christ will 
be ashamed of him. Why ? Because that man has turned 
his back upon the true ideals of nobility, and has devoted 
himself to that which is base and low and mean. Christ 
thus claimed that His words constitute the true inspiration 
of life, which makes for nobility of character. 

Next in order came the declaration recorded by John, that 
His word is to be the Divine standard of judgment ; that by 
the word which He has spoken men are to be judged in 
that ultimate day, to which He so often made reference. 

Then we come to that supreme declaration recorded by 
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, " Heaven and earth shall pass 
away, but My words shall not pass away." 



io The Claim of Christ as to 

My memory goes back nine-and-thirty years to a morn- 
ing when I received one of the earliest and profoundest 
impressions of my life. It was created by that poet-preacher, 
Thomas Jones. I was a boy in Walter's Road Church in 
Swansea, and I remember the occasion as though it were 
but yesterday. He gave out the text, " Heaven and earth 
shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away," and 
then in his own inimitable way he began, leaning on his 
pulpit, " And who is this young man that says this ? Is not 
this the carpenter ? " Then he led us on, and I saw the 
Lord that morning, and I have never forgotten from that 
day to this the tremendous importance of this statement. 
That impression comes back through the years to me now, 
with the accumulated testimony of any measure of attention 
I have been able to give to the teaching of Christ, and I 
believe the tremendous declaration that His word is the 
central and final authority. " Heaven and earth shall pass 
away, but My words shall not pass away." 

Next in order we have His word in the intercessory 
prayer, spoken, not to men, but to His Father, in which 
He said, " Father, I have given them the sayings that Thou 
gavest Me," which was His claim that the things He had 
spoken, which at first often appear to be so fragmentary and 
broken and scattered, but in which very brokenness and 
scattering there is a great system, constitute the complete 
testimony of God to men. 

And last in order comes that word spoken after His res- 
urrection, in exposition of redemption, in which He declared, 
" These are My words" Everything in the Old Testament 
Scriptures, the law, the prophets, the psalms, all the teaching 
foretelling death and resurrection ; the promise of repentance 
and remission of sins, He claimed as finding fulfillment in 
Himself, and as constituting the sum total of His teaching. 

In conclusion let us make a declaration of values. 



The Value of His Teaching 1 1 

First, our Lord distinctly claimed that His teaching was 
Divine in its authority ; and He made that claim in words 
which are most remarkable : 

" I spake not from Myself; but the Father which sent Me, 
He hath given Me a commandment, what I should say, and 
what I should speak. And I know that His command- 
ment is life eternal ; the things therefore which I speak, 
even as the Father hath said unto Me, so I speak." * 

That was His own estimate. He declared that what He 
said was from God ; that what He said was clearly spoken 
to men ; and therefore that what He said should become the 
basis of judgment. This is a very supreme claim, a claim 
made by no other teacher with the same definiteness. 

There is no apology here ; there is no appeal to men to 
consider ; there is no suggestion that if men will hear Him, 
they may thereafter form their own conclusion. He stands 
in the midst of humanity, and says that His teaching is 
Divine in its authority. That is true, or it is not true. 
We shall assume it as true as we go forward. 

If, however, any are not able to assume that it is true, 
then there is a test ; a test permitted, a test given by Jesus. 
" If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the 
teaching, whether it be of God, or whether I speak from 
Myself." a 

Now, that is the full passage. We constantly quote that 
verse partially, as though Christ had said, If a man shall do 
His will, he shall know. We have no right to stop there 
— we must hear Christ through. That may be true in 
certain senses, but Christ declared that he that wills to do 
His will shall know of the teaching whether it be of God. 
Thus Christ said that the only way in which we can test 
His teaching is by obeying it; not by our own intellectual 
cleverness can we ever test the truth of His teaching ; not by 
1 John xii. 49, 50. * Ibid. t vii. 17. 



1 2 The Claim of Christ as to 

any philosophy or wit or wisdom of our own ; but if we 
will do what He says, in doing, we shall come to certainty as 
to whether or not the thing spoken was speech from God. 

That test is in itself, if possible, a more supreme claim 
still. It is Christ's perpetual challenge to the race. He 
claims that His teaching is from God. He uttered that 
challenge in the days of His flesh ; and He publishes it 
anew at this very hour, in the midst of all our complex life, 
and to all men. The test of the Divinity of His teaching 
is obedience to it. I will make this affirmation, which may 
be challenged, but I will make it and leave it : — No man 
ever tried and tested Christ's teaching in that way, and de- 
cided that it was untrue. Or to put it into positive form : — 
Every man who has obeyed the teaching of Christ has at 
last been compelled to say, This word that He spake to my 
soul was the Word of God. His first claim, then, was that 
His teaching is Divine in its authority. 

The second claim that our Lord made for His own teach- 
ing was that, being Divine in authority, it was in order to 
human government. Again, passages we have already 
quoted must be repeated. Take that first word at the close 
of the Manifesto ; " these sayings of Mine," are rock 
foundations for character ; and in preparation for character, 
for conduct ; and in preparation for conduct, for conception. 
That is a claim that if a man will make the words of Jesus 
the master-conceptions of his life, square his conduct with 
these conceptions ; then his character will be strong enough 
to stand the stress and strain of all the storms that ever blow 
from earth or hell. 

A man, did I say ? Yes, Christ always begins with the 
individual ; but He does not end with the individual. 
Nevertheless He does not deal with society to the neglect 
of the individual, and He never suggests the folly of 
incorporating in the new and ultimate society men who are 



The Value of His Teaching 13 

other than men of perfected character. He always begins 
there ; but He is challenging the statesmen of to-day with 
the same words : — Build on My words and you build well 
and forever. Build, however fairly and beautifully, with 
apparent refinement, upon anything else ; then when the 
storm comes, all will be swept away. That is His own 
conception of the value of His teaching. 

He claimed more than that. Not only is the foundation 
of character found in these words of His, they constitute 
the very medium of life, for if a man hear His word, it is 
the word which reveals the Father ; and the man receiving 
it will believe the Father ; and so the word will become the 
medium through which he will receive life. It not only 
affords the vision of the truth ; it supplies the virtue that 
makes possible the victory. 

He claimed also that for human government His words are 
the test of inspiration. What are our inspirations to-day ? 
What are we dreaming about ? What are the ideals formed 
in our hearts, which we are answering ? Let us bring them 
into the light of Christ's teaching. Are we ashamed ? If we 
follow that unworthy inspiration, there will come a day of 
great glory and revelation, when He will be ashamed of us. 

These are supreme claims ! The most monstrous fraud 
the world has ever known was this Jesus ; or ultimate, 
supreme, final, He was very God, as well as very man. 

In the third place He claimed that His teaching was for 
the proclamation of redemption. It is not without sig- 
nificance, with which we cannot now tarry, but to which 
we shall come again in the course of our studies, that the 
word He spoke beyond the Cross, and beyond the grave 
about His words, was that in which He declared that all the 
Old Testament Scriptures were of value, as they led up to 
Him ; and that the central facts of all His ministry and His 
revelation were those of His death and of His resurrection ; 



14 The Claim of Christ 

that the deepest and profoundest passion of His heart, and 
the highest joy of His soul was that He came into human 
history to preach the evangel of repentance and remission 
of sins. He claimed that His words are the words which 
proclaim redemption for men and women who are lost. 

The last claim is that His teaching is final. Heaven and 
earth pass, but the words abide. Nor do they abide only; 
they are complete ; as He said to His Father : " I have 
given them Thy word." That is what the writer of the 
letter to the Hebrews meant when he said, " God, having 
of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers 
portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these 
days spoken unto us in His Son." ' In that speech every- 
thing was said that man needs to hear. 

These are superlative claims. We start the present series 
of meditations, accepting them as true. From this point we 
shall go forward, desiring to hear what He has to say. 

It seems as though, out of that overshadowing glory of 
this mount of worship, I again hear the voice that spoke to 
Peter, James, and John, on the holy mount long ago ; and 
this is what it says : " This is My Son . . . hear ye 
Him." 2 

We started with the confession of impartial and indifferent 
men, " Never man so spake." We close with the declara- 
tion of God, " This is My Son . . . hear ye Him." 

1 Heb. i. i, 2. * Luke ix. 35. 



A. THE TEACHING OF CHRIST 
CONCERNING PERSONALITIES 

I. CONCERNING GOD 



" Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask 
Him." — Matthew vi. 8. 

"Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these 
things." — vi. 32. 

" . . . Neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to 
whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him." — xi. 27. 

" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great and first command- 
ment." — xxii. 37, 38. 



" God is a Spirit." — John iv. 24. 

" My Father worketh even until now, and I work." — v. 77. 

" Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that 
I may take it again." — x. if. 

" If ye had known Me, ye would have known My Father also : from 
henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him." — xiv. 7. 

" He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." — xiv. g. 



CONCERNING GOD 

As we approach the theme of the teaching of Christ con- 
cerning God, inevitably we are conscious of its vastness 
and importance. We recognize also that if there is to be 
any teaching about God, or any understanding of that 
teaching, the revelation must be adjusted to human capacity, 
in order to human comprehension. 

In the universe the fact of God is patent and open ; but 
that vision is too large for human sight, and too vast for 
human comprehension. In order therefore that it may be 
known by men, it must somehow be brought into such nar- 
rowness of expression that they may hear and understand. 

Both these facts — that of the vastness of the theme, and 
that of the necessity for a revelation adjusted to human 
capacity, — are recognized in the words of our Lord, " This 
is the age-abiding life, that they should know Thee the only 
true God, and Him Whom Thou didst send " ; ' the vast- 
ness of the fact in the words, " the only true God," and the 
Medium of manifestation adjusted to the capacity of hu- 
manity in the words, " Him Whom Thou didst send." 

The first impression made upon the mind by a study of 
the words of Jesus about God is that of how little He said 
of Him. We have in these Gospel narratives no sustained 
argument for the existence of God. His existence was as- 
sumed by Jesus. In the words of Jesus we find no system- 
atic teaching about the nature of God. That seems to be 
treated, from first to last, as incomprehensible. Jesus never 
argued for the existence of God ; He assumed that existence. 

1 John xvii. 3. 
17 



18 The Teaching of Christ 

He never taught men anything about God systematically ; 
He seems to have taken it for granted that God is entirely 
beyond the ultimate comprehension of the finite mind. 

On the other hand, there is no assumption on the part of 
Jesus, and nothing in His teaching that would lead us to 
the conclusion that He considered God to be unknowable. 
On the contrary, He declared incidentally, over and over 
again, and more than once quite emphatically, that God is 
revealed, and therefore can be known. That is the burden 
of the thought underlying the words recorded by Matthew, 
" No one knoweth the Son, save the Father ; neither doth 
any know the Father, save the Son." So far we have only 
the assumption that the Father is known by the Son ; but 
the declaration did not end there, for He continued, " and 
he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him " ; ! and 
in that word we discover His recognition of the fact, that 
God can be known by men, in measure, and accurately, 
through revelation. 

In seeking for the teaching of Jesus concerning God, we 
have then, first, to recognize the One Whom He assumed 
in all His ministry ; and secondly, to consider that One so 
far as He is revealed in the words of Jesus. 

We must, however, at once recognize the fact that the 
words of Jesus do not constitute His complete revelation of 
the Father; that His teaching about God is not to be found 
finally in what He said, but in what He was, and in what 
He did. We are now dealing with His words, and I re- 
peat, then, that as we listen to the words of Jesus two 
things seem to be necessary. If we would understand His 
thought of God, we must first recognize the One Whom 
He assumed, the One for Whose existence He never 
argued, the One Whose nature He never attempted system- 
atically to explain, the One to Whom He perpetually re- 

1 Matt. xi. 27. 



Concerning God 19 

ferrcd in the course of all His conversation and of all His 
teaching ; and, in order to this, we must listen to the refer- 
ences He made to that One, and so far as it is possible, at- 
tempt to understand them. Then, secondly, we must at- 
tempt to consider that One assumed, in so far as He was 
actually revealed in the teaching of Jesus. 

The recognition of the God assumed by Jesus can only 
proceed so far as He is revealed in the references which 
prove the assumption. We claim that His references to 
God do prove His assumption of His existence. We claim 
further, that in a measure we may understand His thought 
of the One Whom He assumed, as we listen to His refer- 
ences to that One. The first question we have to ask is, By 
what references is that assumption proven ; then, secondly, 
What do these references reveal ? 

When we come to the consideration of things definitely 
said concerning God, we should remember that such con- 
sideration must be conditioned by the method which the 
Teacher adopted. The method of Jesus in His teaching 
concerning God was twofold. First, He made certain clear 
declarations about God, but they were all incidental j one of 
them was separate and direct, but not one of them was an 
affirmation made for the sake of telling men something about 
God. Everything so said was for the sake of flinging light / 
upon some condition of human life. 

But the final teaching of Jesus, in His manifestation of 
God, was not that of the words of reference to God, nor 
that of the words of declaration concerning God ; but that 
of the manifestation of His whole being and doing. To 
use the stately and mystic words of John, by the fact that 
" the Word was made flesh," did Christ bring to the world 
His full and final teaching concerning God. Therefore the 
final teaching of Jesus concerning God is not to be found 
in the words, but in Himself; and as we grow to a more 



20 The Teaching of Christ 

perfect knowledge of Christ, we shall ever be coming to a 
more perfect understanding of what He taught us concern- 
ing God. 

In our present study, then, there are three things for us to 
do : first, to attempt to recognize His assumption by an ex-* 
amination of His references ; secondly, to consider the few 
brief declarations He clearly made about God ; and finally, 
to observe how these things prepare for the final teaching of 
His own Person. 

Now when we attempt to recognize His assumption, as 
we have already pointed out, we can only do so by paying 
attention to His ieferences. A careful reading of the actual 
words of Jesus, as they lie scattered through these four 
Gospels, reveals the fact that whether the teaching was the 
more public general teaching, or the more systematic teach- 
ing, such as the Manifesto of the Kingdom, or the final 
paschal discourses delivered to the disciples, or the great 
prophecies on Olivet ; in all such teaching and converse, 
Jesus constantly referred to God. Those references are of 
supreme importance, not in the matter of what He said, but 
in the way in which He referred to God ; or quite clearly, 
in the names of God which He employed. We find that 
in all the Gospels He is only reported to have referred to 
God by the use of three names or titles. There is a sense 
in which it would be correct to say He only referred to God 
by the use of two names, for in every case where He used 
the third, He did so in making a quotation from the Old 
Testament Scriptures. The One Whom He assumed, 
and to Whom He perpetually referred, He always called 
u God," or " Father," when speaking His own words. He 
also called Him " Lord " by quotation from the Old Testa- 
ment Scriptures. The two outstanding and peculiar names, 
which Jesus employed in referring to the One Whose exist- 
ence He assumed, were those of " God " and " Father." 



Concerning God 21 

I think that fact illuminates for us certain words in the 
epistles, to which I only refer in passing. I think that is 
what Paul meant when he said at the beginning of his 
Ephesian letter, " Blessed be the God and Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ." l I think that is what Peter meant 
when, in his letter, he wrote the identical words of Paul, 
" Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 
While I am perfectly sure that each of these apostles recog- 
nized the relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ and 
the Eternal One, I think they were also remembering the 
way by which He described the One to Whom He was 
related, perpetually speaking of Him as God or as Father. 

Let us then in the very simplest way possible consider 
these names. The word God stands for an abstract idea. It 
explains nothing. It suggests no truth concerning substance, 
attributes, or activities. Just as when we begin to consider 
the component colours of light, we lose light ; so in the 
moment in which we begin that which for certain reasons is 
necessary and proper, a study of the nature and attributes and 
activities of God, we lose that supreme conception which 
the word suggests when used apart from definition. 

When we begin to enquire the meaning of the Greek 
word Theos we find ourselves involved in a discussion of 
eight suggested derivations. And finally we shall have to 
be content to leave the matter where the scholars have left 
it, that most probably the underlying thought, the root from 
which the word came, was one meaning to implore, or to 
sacrifice ; and that the word itself in its first use suggested 
One implored, or One to Whom sacrifice is given. That 
is all doubtful ; but the fact of the darkness round the origin 
of the word is in itself suggestive. 

If our Lord made use of that actual word, Theos^ if He 
spoke a Greek dialect, there can be no question that the 
1 Eph. i. 3. a 1 Peter i. 3. 



22 The Teaching of Christ 

thought in His mind was the thought of the Hebrew word, 
Elohim, that majestic and mysterious plural in which the 
master conception is that of strength. 

There is less doubt about the Latin word Deus than about 
the Greek word, for we are familiar with the fact that it 
comes from a root signifying to shine. 

The origin of the word God of our own language is also 
clouded in obscurity. One thing is absolutely certain ; it 
has no root connection with the word good. In all proba- 
bility its root significance is exactly the same as that of the 
word Theos ; Some one to be implored ; Some one to whom 
sacrifice is offered. 

If in this consideration I have succeeded in showing how 
ignorant we are as to the meaning of these words, that is in 
itself a preparation and a revelation. In all languages the 
words which stand for the Supreme Being represent an 
abstract idea ; and yet in their very indefiniteness, in the 
fact that the light which seems to be upon them, when we 
commence to examine them, merges into a great darkness, 
which is the darkness of a light too bright to be examined, 
we have the first great suggestion about God. Thus Jesus 
perpetually used a word that attempted no definition, but 
that brought to the mind the conception of a Being, of an 
Existence, and of a conscious Existence. By all His uses of 
the word God, we realize that to Him God was One exist- 
ing, apart from final definition, and yet forevermore so acting, 
as to make it possible for men to touch Him, to come into 
contact with Him, to have definite relationships with Him. 

The second of these words, Father, is a word of an en- 
tirely different kind, bringing the mind into a new attitude 
in thinking of God. While the word God is abstract, and 
suggests separation, the word Father is relative, and sug- 
gests a relation. 

Now it is of the utmost importance that we should 



Concerning God 23 

understand the true nature of the relation suggested ; and as 
we give close attention to the word we find ourselves, I 
think, face to face with somewhat astonishing facts. 

The word Father itself does not at all suggest what we 
mean by father to-day. It does not suggest the origination 
of life. The Greek word so translated, the Latin word 
which was derived from the Greek, and our word derived 
from the Latin, suggest, not the fountain of life, not the 
origin of life, but a nourisher, a succourer, one who cares 
for. The Aramaic word Abba, appearing in our New 
Testament, is used in our literal and immediate sense, but 
its root idea is figurative and remote. 

The Father, then, is One Who nourishes, One Who 
succours, One Who cares for; One Who makes His sun 
to shine upon the evil as well as upon the good ; One 
Whose relationship to those of whom He is Father, is the 
relationship of providence, of love and care, of thought, 
blessing and guidance. Jesus perpetually spoke of God as 
Father, essentially as His own Father, peculiarly as the Fa- 
ther of His disciples, inclusively as the Father of all men. 

Thus, Father is a word that suggests a relationship be- 
tween that God Who cannot be defined, and all the crea- 
tures of His hand. We are not now discussing the question 
of the Fatherhood of God, in the special New Testament 
sense as resulting from the regeneration of the individual. 
We are simply taking the word in the sense in which our 
Lord made use of it, as a revelation of God in His attitude 
towards, and relationship with, men. 

The final word to be considered is the word Lord. Here 
again we have a word suggesting a relationship. A careful 
examination of the passages containing the records of our 
Lord's use of this word will show that, when using it, He 
was invariably quoting from the Scriptures of the Old 
Testament. It may be that His quotations were from the 



24 The Teaching of Christ 

Septuagint, in all probability they were; and therefore it 
must be remembered that the Septuagint was successful in 
hiding certain uses of the titles of God, which are of the 
utmost value in the study of the Hebrew Scriptures. The 
Septuagint uniformly translated the Hebrew word Adonahy, 
and also the tetragrammaton, Yhvh, which we render 
Yahweh, or Jehovah ; by the Greek word Kurios. Now if 
we examine the passages which our Lord quoted, not in the 
Septuagint, but in the Hebrew versions, we shall find that the 
name, of God in them was never Adonahy. So that every 
time we find the word Lord in the words of Jesus about God, 
we know that the thought of Jesus was that of the Hebrew 
conception of God, expressed in our word Jehovah. 

It is not within the necessity of our present study to 
enter in any detail into the discussion of the suggestiveness 
of that title. It is sufficient to say that the suggestion was 
not that of the self-existence of God contained in the word 
Elohim with which the Old Testament Scriptures open. 
Jehovah suggested rather the fact that this Being, incom- 
prehensible, utterly beyond the possibility of finite mind to 
perfectly understand, accommodates Himself to the neces- 
sities of His people ; that He becomes whatever they need 
in the processes of His dealing with them. There are ex- 
positors of the New Testament who tell us that our Lord 
carried over that great thought from the Hebrew economy 
into the New, by constantly adopting the title of Father for 
God, as we have exactly the same thought of succour 
therein. I should personally consider that there is a dis- 
tinction between them, because Jehovah ultimately suggests 
that incarnation by which God became flesh. 

Having thus considered the words, we may now attempt to 
state what may be known of the One Whom Jesus assumed. 

By the one word He most constantly made use of, which 
in our language is the word God, He assumed the being and 



Concerning God 25 

existence of One of Whom final definition is impossible. 
That One is, according to the suggestion of the Greek 
word, One Who may be implored, to Whom prayer may 
be made ; according to the suggestion of the Hebrew word, 
One all-sufficient in strength ; according to the suggestion 
of the Latin word, One shining in glory. It is impossible 
to define ; but the fact is recognized that, behind the lilies, 
with the sparrows, numbering the hairs of the head, close at 
hand, far away, annihilating all distance in His Being, 
counting no time in the fact of His existence, is One. 
That is the final fact; and it is an amazing fact to us be- 
cause we are finite ; for Elohim is the mightiest name of 
God, more wonderful than yehovah^ if we were able to com- 
prehend it. Because we are finite, the next, and perhaps 
in the light of the first fact, the yet more amazing fact is, 
that Jesus referred to this One as Father; recognizing by 
that name His relation to men, as the Nourisher of men, as 
the Succourer of men, as the One Who cares for men. 
Finally, by His quotation of the ancient Hebrew thought, 
He recognized that the methods of that One in His redemp- 
tion of man is that of becoming whatever His people need, in 
order to the perfecting of those upon whom His love is set. 

Our consideration of the definite and explicit declarations 
He made about this One must be brief, for they were very few. 

About God He made one such declaration, and only one ; 
and "then, as I have already pointed out, not in order to 
make the declaration, but in order that by the making of it, 
He might teach another lesson. To the woman of Samaria 
He said, " God is Spirit." ' There is no record in the New 
Testament of any other essential and final declaration con- 
cerning God from the lips of Jesus. In the declaration 
there are two values : the word God suggested Being, and 
in some sense of the word — more wonderful than we can 

1 John iv. 24. 



26 The Teaching of Christ 

comprehend — personality ; and the word Spirit suggested 
the nature of the personality, Spirit being free from the 
limitation of space and time. 

Let the context illuminate the declaration. Our Lord 
made the statement, not to a Jew, but to a Samaritan ; not 
to a man, but to a woman ; not to a fair and beautiful 
woman, but to a sinning woman ; and He uttered the truth 
in order to teach that woman that ultimately, when men 
knew and understood, when His own work was completed, 
worship would be possible anywhere, no one place and no 
one method being necessary ; no longer in Jerusalem, nor in 
this mountain, but wherever the worshipper is, who worships 
in spirit and in truth, there worship is possible ; for God is 
Spirit. Therefore whether it be in cathedral or chapel or 
conventicle ; or away from all, on the deep, on the moun- 
tain height, in the valley, in the desert, there He is ; and if 
the heart be true, there is the shrine, there is the place of 
worship. That revelation about worship was the reason of 
the declaration. Thus in the midst of that teaching came 
the one great word of Christ concerning God, mystic, and 
utterly beyond our final analysis, " God is Spirit." 

As to our Lord's declaration concerning the Father, I can 
but take illustrative words, for there were many. I think 
three will suffice. 

In Matthew it is recorded that in the course of the Mani- 
festo, twice over He said one thing about God as Father ; 
practically He said it over and over again, but twice it comes 
out into definite" form : " Your heavenly Father knoweth 
that ye have need of all these things." 1 

In John we have a truth, often referred to in many differ- 
ent ways, crystallized into a definite statement. The Lord 
healed the man in the porches of Bethesda, and His enemies 
were criticizing Him for breaking Sabbath ; when He said, 
u My Father worketh even until now, and I work." 2 

1 Matt. vi. 8, 32. 2 John v. 17. 



Concerning God 27 

A little later on, in the same Gospel of John, it is recorded 
that in speaking of His work He affirmed definitely a truth 
which was constantly illustrated in His teaching : " There- 
fore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life." x 

I say these are but illustrations. If we take the whole of 
His teaching, we shall find these truths running all through 
His statements in varying applications ; but I select these 
because of their definiteness. 

The value of these statements we may epitomize by say- 
ing that He declared that the Father knows all the need of 
man ; that the Father is at work in the midst of all the things 
that cause humanity suffering, that He knows no Sabbath 
because man has lost his Sabbath j that the Father loves ; 
and that the supreme reason — a mystic and awe-inspiring 
declaration — of His love of the Son, is that the Son gives 
Himself to die for the saving of man. 

Concerning the fact that this God and Father is Jehovah, 
He made only one declaration, and that by quotation. 
When someone asked Him, Which is the great command- 
ment ? His answer was immediately given, " Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart . . . Thou 
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself " ; 2 and in that illumina- 
tive word Jesus taught that the law of Jehovah aims at 
creating love in the heart of man towards Himself, and 
towards his fellow man ; and therefore that His law must be 
the outcome of the love of His heart. 

Thus the supreme truths about God in the teachings of 
Jesus may thus be briefly stated ; God in Himself is Spirit ; 
towards all He is a Father, knowing, working, loving in 
His method ; and He is Lord, the Author of a law born of 
love, and intended to produce love. 

All this however but prepares for the final teaching. That 
final teaching is found in nothing Jesus said about God either 
directly or incidentally. He is in Himself the final teach- 

1 John x. 17. * Matt. xxii. 37, 39. 



28 The Teaching of Christ 

ing. This is His claim for Himself: " I came out from the 
Father, and am come into the world ; again, I leave the 
world, and go unto the Father." ' This is His claim con- 
cerning His relation to His Father in the world : " No one 
knoweth the Son, save the Father ; neither doth any know 
the Father save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son 
willeth to reveal Him." 2 This is His claim concerning men : 
" Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know 
Me, Philip ? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." 3 

Thus, inclusively, He claimed that if men saw Him, they 
saw God ; that His final teaching concerning God was not 
that of His words, but that of Himself. Therefore, if I 
would know this God Who is Spirit, this Father Who 
knows and works and loves, this Lord Who is Lawgiver, 
Himself forevermore becoming what I need, I must know 
Him through Jesus. To put the matter in another way ; 
if I know this Jesus — not listen merely to what He says, but 
know Him — then from Him I may project the lines into 
the vastness of eternity, and they will include tl|e fact of 
God. As Charles Wesley dared to put it in one of his most 
magnificent hymns, in Him we see " God contracted to a 
span " ; and that in order that we may see, that we may 
know, that we may understand. 

Our study of the teaching of Christ concerning God must 
be imperfect/because in His words His final teaching about 
God is not contained. Nevertheless, in the words we have 
found revealed the facts, of the sovereignty of God Who is 
Spirit; of the nearness of our relationship to God as Father; 
of the perfection of His method, in that He is the Lord, 
Author of a law of love, Himself becoming what His people 
need, in order to help them to become. 

The ultimate unveiling of God is to be found in the One 
Who spoke ; Who is infinitely more than all the words that 
ever passed His lips; because He is Himself the Word of God. 
1 John xvi. 28. a Matt. xi. 27. s John xiv. 9. 



II. CONCERNING HIMSELF 



" I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." — Matthew ix. 13. 

" No one knoweth the Son, save the Father." — xi. 2J. 

" My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." — xxvi. 38. 

" The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners." — xxvi. 43. 



" For verily the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." — Mark x. 43. 

" But of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in 
heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." — xiii. 32. 



" I must preach the good tidings of the Kingdom of God to the other 
cities also : for therefore was I sent." — Luke iv. 43. 

" The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests ; but the 
Son of Man hath not where to lay His head." — ix. 38. 

" For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." — 
xix. 10. 



" And no man hath ascended into heaven, but He that descended out 
of heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted 
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up ; 
that whosoever believeth may in Him have eternal life." — John Hi. 13-14. 

" My Father worketh even until now, and I work." — v. ij. 

" Even so the Son also quickeneth whom He will." — v. 21. 

" I came forth and am come from God." — viii. 42. 

" Before Abraham was, I am." — viii. 38. 

" We must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day ; the 
night cometh, when no man can work." — ix. 4. 

" I and the Father are One." — x. 30. 

" I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me may 
not abide in the darkness." — xii. 46. 

" He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." — xiv. 9. 

" I came out from the Father, and am come into the world ; again, I 
leave the world, and go unto the Father." — xvi. 28. 



II 

CONCERNING HIMSELF 

We must all recognize the supreme importance of the 
teaching of Christ concerning Himself. In an address de- 
livered from the Chair of the Congregational Union in 1909, 
Mr. J. D. Jones of Bournemouth said, " The Question, 
' What think ye of Christ ? ' is critical for the future of 
Christianity. It is around the question of the Person of 
Christ that the battle wages. ... Is He simply the 
first Christian, or is He the sum and substance of Christi- 
anity ? " 

The enquiry is a pertinent one, and the declaration that 
we are in the midst of a conflict around the question of the 
Person of Christ cannot be denied. 

In the midst then of such conflict, we turn with keen 
and reverent interest to the consideration of His teaching 
concerning Himself. 

It is necessary at the outset that we recognize the limita- 
tions of our present meditation. We are limited first by 
the fact that He gave no systematic teaching concerning 
Himself. He never, upon any occasion, so far as the 
records reveal — and we have no other means of knowing — 
addressed the multitudes by way of explanation of His own 
Person and Being. Neither have we any record of His 
gathering His disciples about Him, in order that He might 
tell them all the truth about Himself. On the other hand, 
it is quite evident that the supreme problem of the men of 
His age was created by Himself. His enemies and His 
critics over and over again asked Him for some clear and 
specific teaching concerning Himself, " Who art Thou ? " 

3 1 



32 The Teaching of Christ 

— " Whence earnest Thou ? " His disciples were evidently 
equally perplexed. Both foes and friends were conscious 
in His presence of more than they could account for; and 
were eager to hear His own declaration concerning the mys- 
tery of His Being ; but He never, by direct and systematic 
teaching, answered the enquiry either of friends or foes. In- 
deed, I think it would not be too strong a statement to make 
were I to say that, according to His own declaration recorded 
by John, 1 He avoided all such teaching. On the other hand, 
it is impossible to read the words of Jesus, as they are re- 
corded for us in these four narratives, without seeing quite 
clearly that the implications of His teaching constitute a 
revelation of His Person. 

We are also limited in this study by the fact that from His 
references to Himself we shall select, for our present use, 
only those which are essential and inclusive. 

I propose therefore, first, to group certain of His state- 
ments concerning Himself, in which statements He made 
use of revealing terms ; and secondly, therefrom to make a 
deduction of values. 

First then, let us gather from the mass of material at our 
disposal in the four Gospels certain outstanding statements 
of our Lord. These we shall group under three headings : 
first, passages containing terms of existence ; secondly, pas- 
sages containing terms of relation ; and thirdly, passages con- 
taining terms of purpose. In the light of these passages we 
shall see something of what our Lord taught concerning 
Himself; as to the mystery of His Being, as to His relation- 
ship both to God and man, and as to the meaning or pur- 
pose of His presence in our world. 

We then take first the Scriptures which contain terms 
dealing with the fact of His existence. Certain things Christ 
said of Himself, either in formal declaration, or incidentally, 

1 John v. 30-38. 



Concerning Himself 33 

reveal His self-consciousness, as apart from His relationship, 
either to God or to man. These again may be grouped 
under two headings. In certain passages He spoke out of 
an eternal consciousness ; or I should prefer to change the 
word eternal, and adopt that which is its equivalent, but 
which far better conveys the real meaning of the New 
Testament word ; He spoke out of an age-abiding conscious- 
ness. In other passages there are terms which reveal His 
temporal consciousness ; or terms which show that He was 
speaking, as of the age in which He lived, and as conscious 
of its limitations. 

I have selected, rather by way of illustration than in any 
attempt to exhaust the theme, three passages in which I find 
the terms of eternity, the age-abiding terms. Let us first read 
them. I shall quite deliberately lift these passages out of their 
context, in order that we may consider them in their lone- 
liness. This is not to do any violence to them, because the 
context in no way modifies their meaning in this application. 

These then are the three passages : 

" I came forth, and am come from God." * 

" Before^Abraham was, I am." 2 

" I came out from the Father, and am come into the 
world ; again, I leave the world, and go unto the Father." 3 

Almost all the great declarations of Christ revealing His 
eternal consciousness, and concerning His relationship to 
God, are found in the Gospel according to John. Bishop 
Westcott said of this Gospel, " The Gospel of St. John from 
first to last is a record of the conflict between men's 
thoughts of Christ, and Christ's revelation of Himself." 

The first of these statements, " I came forth, and am come 
from God," 4 is a most remarkable word, not describing a 
fellowship of nearness with God, but one which is essential. 
The real suggestion of the declaration, u I came forth from 

1 John viii. 42. s Ibid., viii. 58. 3 Ibid., xvi. 28. * Ibid., viii. 42. 



34 The Teaching of Christ 

God," is not that He came from the side of God, from com- 
panionship with God, as an angel might ; but that He came 
out of the essential mystery of the Being of God. 

The declaration, " Before Abraham was, I am," * was in- 
troduced by that formula of which He occasionally made use 
when desiring to fasten attention upon a subject : " Verily, 
verily." This moreover was a direct and intended contrast 
on His part between the temporal and the eternal. " Abra- 
ham was " ; that is a term of the temporal ; but before that, 
" I am," which in that contrast becomes distinctly a term 
of the eternal. 

In the last of these three passages we have a perfect sum- 
mary of the whole mission of Christ as recorded in the 
Gospels, "... from the Father . . . into the world 
. . . leave the world . . . unto the Father." 2 

It is impossible, and unnecessary for us to consider fully the 
value of these words separately. The fact to be observed is 
that our Lord referred to Himself in such a way that the im- 
plication of His references is that of an age-abiding existence. 
It is important that we notice the persistence of the Ego, of the 
" I," of the Person, through these passages : " / came forth, 
and am come from God " ; "Before Abraham was, /am " ; "7 
came out ... am come into . . . I leave . . . and go 
unto." 

Herein is no definite or systematic declaration or claim of 
preexistence ; and yet herein is the consciousness of a per- 
sistent existence ; or the vapourings of a diseased mind ; or 
the false claims of an impostor. The Ego is persistent ; 
existing before the coming, or there could have been no 
coming ; present in the world, and evidently set forth before 
the eyes of men in guise suited to their ability to appreciate ; 
and about to leave the world, but not to cease to be. These 
are the eternal terms, the age-abiding terms, in which He 
1 John viii. 58. » Ibid., xvi. 28. 



Concerning Himself 35 

spoke of Himself; and the inevitable implication is that of 
an eternal, or an age-abiding consciousness. 

Turning next to those terms of existence which were 
purely temporal ; those references to Himself which indicated 
His relation to the conditions of the age in which He spoke ; 
and which mark His sense of the limitations of time and 
locality, and His sense of the common experiences of hu- 
manity, we will group seven such passages, indicating in 
each case the particular sense suggested. 

The first two indicate His sense of the limitations of time 
and locality : " We must work the works of Him that sent 
Me, while it is day : the night cometh, when no man can 
work." ' That was the sense of time. 

" I must preach the good tidings of the Kingdom of God 
to the other cities also : for therefore was I sent." 2 That 
was the sense of locality. 

The next five reveal His sense of the common experience 
of men : " Of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not 
even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." 8 
That was the sense of limited knowledge. 

" The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have 
nests ; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His 
head." 4 That was the sense of poverty. 

" No one knoweth the Son, save the Father." 5 That 
was the sense of loneliness. 

" My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." 6 
That was the sense of sorrow. 

" The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners." 7 
That was the sense of human weakness. 

From these illustrations, which can easily be changed or 

1 John ix. 4. 5 Matt. xi. 27. 

a Luke iv. 43. 6 Ibid., xxvi. 38. 

3 Mark xiii. 32. ' Ibid., xxvi. 45. 

4 Luke ix. 58. 



36 The Teaching of Christ 

multiplied, we may recognize that His common speech con- 
cerning Himself was that of One sharing in every way in the 
conditions of His age, and the experiences of humanity. 
Thus we find declarations, formally made, or incidentally 
falling from His lips, which reveal the consciousness of a 
Being both superior to His own age, and subsisting in all 
ages ; and therefore ageless, timeless, age-abiding, eternal. 
And we find that He was conscious also of the limitations 
of time and space ; that He did not know the day or the 
hour; that He knew poverty, that He knew loneliness, 
that He knew sorrow, that He knew weakness; all the things 
of one age, its limitations and its human experiences. 

Passing now to the Scriptures which contain the terms 
revealing the fact of His relationships, these may also be 
grouped under two heads : those revealing His relation to 
God, and those showing His relation to men. 

Those revealing His relation to God are found in the 
Gospel according to John. His consciousness of relation 
to God is revealed as twofold : a consciousness of relation 
as to nature, and a consciousness of relation as to activitv. 

There are two great words revealing His consciousness 
as to nature : " I and the Father are one." " " He that 
hath seen Me hath seen the Father." 2 

There are also two words revealing His consciousness as 
to activity : " My Father worketh even until now, and I 
work." 3 " As the Father raiseth the dead and quickeneth 
them, even so the Son also quickeneth whom He will." 4 

Our present interest centres not in the connection of 
these words, important though it is, but in the actual declara- 
tions. Notice the two affirmations concerning His con- 
scious relationship to God as to nature. " I and the Father 
are one." 5 That is a solemn and separate claim in which 

1 John x. 30. s Ibid., v. 17. * Ibid., x. 30. 

1 Ibid., xiv. 9. 4 Ibid., v. 21. 



Concerning Himself 37 

every single word, properly considered, is full of value and 
suggestiveness ; and it is well that we should notice the effect 
produced by these words upon the Jews who first heard them, 
for as we observe that effect, we shall discover their under- 
standing of His meaning. " The Jews took up stones again 
to stone Him ; " and that, as they said, " because that Thou, 
being a man, makest Thyself God." ■ So it is impossible to 
misunderstand their interpretation of our Lord's meaning. 
They knew that it was a word in which He claimed essen- 
tial and absolute unity and identity of nature with God Him- 
self. In other words, it was a claim to absolute Deity ; and 
there can be no escape from it ; there is only one way to be 
rid of it, and that is to blot it out, and to deny that He said 
it. If we retain it, we must worship Him ; or else declare 
that these were the vapourings of a disordered mind, or the 
words of the most terrible impostor the world has ever heard. 
" I and the Father are one." Nothing can be clearer. 

Equally clear, and yet slightly different in application, was 
the word spoken to Philip ; but here again it is impossible to 
mistake the meaning in the light of the context. "Show us 
the Father," said Philip, " and it sufficeth us." " Have I 
been so long with you, and dost thou not know Me, Philip ? 
He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." 2 Some declare 
that the first words may be used by any man, " I and the 
Father are one." Is any man prepared to say the same of 
the second, " He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father " ? 
Linking the two together we have our Lord's definite claim 
to a relationship with God, which is that of identity of na- 
ture, and absolute though mysterious unity of Being. 

Then notice the declarations in which He revealed His 

relationship to God in activity. " My Father worketh even 

until now, and I work." 3 Once again, ere we suggest any 

interpretation of the meaning of these words, it is well to 

1 John x. 31, 33. « Ibid., xiv. 8, 9. 8 Ibid., v. 17. 



38 The Teaching of Christ 

observe the effect produced upon the men who listened to 
them : " For this cause therefore the Jews sought the more 
to kill Him, because He not only brake the Sabbath, but 
also called God His own Father, making Himself equal with 
God" l Our Lord's declaration in these words was that His 
relationship to God as to activity was that of cooperation. 
God was at work in the midst of human suffering and lim- 
itation, moving forward towards healing and restoration ; 
and He was cooperating with Him in that very work; and 
moreover He explained His own claim in the second declara- 
tion, " Even so the Son also quickeneth whom He will." 2 
This, He said in effect, is the teaching contained in the 
man's healing by the pool ; this is God's act ; He gives life 
to the dead, renewal to the impotent. Thus Christ claimed 
that in the very works He wrought He was cooperating 
with God, and that His work was the Divine work, of re- 
creation and regeneration. 

But now turn to the terms of His relationship to men. 
This He expressed through all His ministry by the almost 
persistent use of one particular title to describe Himself; 
namely, that of " the Son of Man." 

The term, " the Son of Man," occurs in Matthew thirty- 
two times, in Mark fifteen times, in Luke twenty-six times, 
and in John twelve times. In the first three Gospels the 
title is always recorded as having been used by Christ of 
Himself, and never by angel, by man, or by demon. Of 
the twelve occasions in John, ten are from the lips of 
Christ ; twice only was the expression used by men, and 
then in the spirit of criticism and unbelief: "We have 
heard out of the law that the Christ abideth forever : and 
how sayest Thou, The Son of Man must be lifted up ? Who 
is this Son of Man ? " 3 Those are the only two occasions 
in all the Gospels where the term is found upon the lips of 
1 John v. 18. 2 Ibid., v. 21. 3 Ibid., xii. 34. 



Concerning Himself 39 

any but Christ. The term Son of Man was never used by 
angel or demon or man except upon this occasion. It is 
Christ's own description of Himself, and it is the term that 
links Him to humanity, shows His intimate and positive 
relationship to the human race. 

For particular illustration I take the story of the tempta- 
tion, where the Lord is seen standing entirely upon the level 
of humanity. He was in the wilderness, being tempted as 
man, as representative man ; and that is not my view merely, 
it was His own statement. In answer to the first tempta- 
tion He said : " It is written, Man shall not live by bread 
alone.'' ' That is to say, in effect, I am in this wilderness 
on the human level, as the Son of Man taking the place 
every other man has to take ; and I obey the law of God 
that conditions the life of humanity. In answer to the 
second temptation, He said : " It is written, Thou shalt 
worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou 
serve ; " 2 and thus He put Himself within the Divine 
limitation of every other human life, and declared that He 
was living according to the law which every other man 
must obey if he would come to the fulfillment of his life. 
In answer to the third of these temptations, He said : " It 
is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." 3 Thus 
He declared that the law which governed Him was exactly 
the same as that which governed other men. Therefore 
the terms that indicate His relationship to men are those 
that prove His absolute kinship with the human race, His 
complete identification with human experience. 

Finally, let us examine the terms which reveal the mean- 
ing and purpose of His presence in manifested form in hu- 
man history. 

These deal with the Mission, and the Method. 

In dealing with the Mission we propose to take one cen- 
1 Luke iv. 4. * Ibid., iv. 8. 3 Ibid. y iv. 12. 



4-0 The Teaching of Christ 

tral and illuminative statement from each evangelist. It will 
be understood that these passages are only illustrative. The 
supreme and almost overwhelming difficulty in this whole 
study is the mass of material. In examining these state- 
ments we must be very careful to interpret the " I " in each 
case by the matter we have considered ; and we must be 
careful to understand the declaration, " I came," in the light 
of that revelation of personal consciousness of Being, which 
we have also considered. 

" I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." 1 

" For verily the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, 
but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." 2 

" For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that 
which was lost." 3 

" No man hath ascended into heaven, but He that de- 
scended out of heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in 
heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder- 
ness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up : that who- 
soever believeth may in Him have age-abiding life." 4 

What a grouping of declarations is here ! How abso- 
lutely they are fitted to the atmosphere in which they are 
found ! In Matthew, which is the Gospel of the Kingdom, 
we have the dignity of the eternal King in the " I came," 
and immediately the picture is that of this King seeking to 
save sinners. In Mark, which is the Gospel of the Servant, 
and in Luke, the Gospel of the Man, we have the term 
" the Son of Man," identifying Him with humanity, linked 
with the verb that marks His eternal consciousness, " came." 
In the Gospel of John, the Gospel of His essential Deity 
veiled in flesh, we have the strange merging of the human 
and the Divine : " No man hath ascended into heaven, but 
He that descended out of heaven, even the Son of Man, 

1 Matt. ix. 13. s Luke xix. 10. 

a Mark x. 45. * John iii. 13, 14. 



Concerning Himself 41 

which is in heaven " ; and then the declaration that the Son 
of Man must be lifted up that " whosoever believeth may in 
Him have eternal life " — that is, age-abiding life, which is 
the life of the Son of Man, in the essential fact of His being. 

There is no systematic teaching here as to His purpose, 
but the doctrine is quite clear. The first declaration, the 
one chronicled by Matthew, was made in answer to the 
criticism of the Pharisees, uttered on account of His famil- 
iarity with publicans and sinners. He said in effect, I am 
in the world to seek these very people, and not to seek you 
if you are righteous men ! I came to give these men re- 
pentance. The declaration recorded by Mark was in cor- 
rection of His own self-seeking disciples, who wanted thrones 
of power : " The Son of Man came not to be ministered 
unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for 
many." The declaration found in Luke was made in an- 
swer to criticism because He had accepted the hospitality of 
Zacchaeus, and in order to explain the transformation 
wrought in the man which made him disgorge his ill-gotten 
wealth, and return it to the poor. He said the Son of Man 
came to do that very thing — to seek and to save the lost. 
The declaration recorded by John was made to an inquirer 
who sought Him in the silence and hush of the night, and 
asked how could any man have new life, and be born again. 
To him Jesus said that the Son of Man, Who is in Heaven, 
and descended out of it, and is here, must be lifted up, and 
so His life will be liberated that others may share it. 

Thus, in august and marvellous simplicity, He unfolded 
the purpose of His presence in the world ; the presence in 
the world of the One Whose consciousness was eternal and 
temporal, Whose relation was with God and with man, in 
each case in complete, though mysterious, identity. 

In other Scriptures we have a revelation of His method 
in the fulfillment of the mission. His method as to God was 



42 The Teaching of Christ 

that of submission and cooperation. The first was sug- 
gested by His recorded words, "I must be about My 
Father's business." 1 The second was declared in the word 
already used in another application, " My Father worketh 
even until now, and I work." 2 

His method in regard to men was that of revelation and 
redemption. He was in the world for revelation : " I am 
come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me 
may not abide in the darkness." 3 He came for redemption : 
" I came to cast fire upon the earth ; and what do I desire, 
would that it were already kindled ! But I have a baptism to 
be baptized with ; and how am I straitened till it be accom- 
plished." 4 Reverently expressing the thought in other words, 
He said, I am here not merely for revelation of light ; I am 
here for redemption, and that can only be provided by death. 

This is a hasty, and, in view of the wonder of the teach- 
ing, an unsatisfactory grouping of the recorded statements. 
In briefest sentences, therefore, let us attempt a deduction 
of values from this teaching of Christ concerning Himself. 

He claimed a supernatural existence — that is, an exist- 
ence indefinable by the terms applicable to man, considered 
merely as the crown of creation. Supernatural is an awk- 
ward word ; it will become obsolete when we have more 
light. If we could climb to the height where God dwells, 
things we call supernatural would be perfectly natural ; but 
using the word in our ordinary sense, Christ claimed to be 
other than the men by whom He was surrounded. He 
claimed prior existence, in that He said He was, before He 
came. He claimed infinite existence, in that while He was 
yet present in the limitations of time and space, He spoke 
of being in the bosom of the Father, and in heaven itself. 
He claimed indestructible existence, in that while He spoke 

1 Luke ii. 49. s Ibid., xii. 46. 

a John v. 17. 4 Luke xii. 49, 50. 



Concerning Himself 43 

of laying down His life, He declared that He would take it 
again, and that no man could destroy it. 

He also claimed a natural existence — that is, an existence 
definable by the terms applicable to man as the crown of cre- 
ation. He claimed to live as a man ; in subjection to God ; 
limited in knowledge and in power ; rinding all-sufficient re- 
source in God for the accomplishment of the will of God. 

He claimed, moreover, that He was in the world for the 
express purpose of saving men, and restoring a lost order; 
and He explicitly declared that this purpose could not be 
fulfilled save by His death and resurrection; and that in the 
accomplishment of death and resurrection He was working 
in the will of God and in cooperation with Him. 

It will be recognized that this study is intensive rather 
than extensive. We might consider the teaching of the 
Lord concerning Himself as the Revealer of the Father in a 
series of studies based upon His outstanding declarations in 
the Gospel of John. Or, on the other hand, we might 
consider the teaching of the Lord concerning Himself as the 
Redeemer of men, based upon outstanding declarations of 
His ministry as recorded by all the evangelists. 

These, however, do not come within the scope of our 
present intention. We have simply attempted to grasp the 
bare outline of His teaching concerning Himself. We desire 
to find Christ according to His own estimate; and we most 
fittingly close our study and express our conviction in the 
words of the great apostle when he wrote to Timothy : 

" And confessedly great is the sacred secret of godliness, 
Who was made manifest in flesh, 
Who was declared righteous in spirit, 
Was made visible unto messengers, 
Was proclaimed among nations, 
Was believed on in the world, 
Was taken up in glory." 1 

1 1 Tim. iii. 16. (Rotherham's Translation.) 



III. THE SPIRIT 



" It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in 
you." — Matthew x. 20. 

" But if I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the kingdom of 
God come upon you." — xii. 28. 

" Therefore I say unto you, Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven 
unto men; but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 
And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be 
forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall 
not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to 
come." — xii. 31, 32. 

" Go ye therefore, and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the 
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." — xxviii. ig. 



« Whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never for- 
giveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin." — Mark Hi. 2Q. 

" David himself said in the Holy Spirit, The Lord said unto my Lord, 
Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy 
feet." — xii. 36. 

" And when they lead you to judgment, and deliver you up, be not 
anxious beforehand what ye shall speak : but whatsoever shall be given 
you in that hour, that speak ye : for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy 
Ghost." — xiii. 11. 

'* He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that disbe- 
lieveth shall be condemned." — xvi. 16. 



" If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, 
how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them 
that ask Him ? " — Luke xi. 13. 

" And every one who shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall 
be forgiven him : but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit 
it shall not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues, 
and the rulers, and the authorities, be not anxious how or what ye shall 
answer, or what ye shall say : for the Holy Spirit shall teach you in that 
very hour what ye ought to say." — xii. 10-12. 

** I came to cast fire upon the earth ; and what will I, if it is already 
kindled ? But I have a baptism to be baptized with ; and how am I 
straitened till it be accomplished ! " — xii. 4q t 30. 



« And behold, I send forth the promise of My Father upon you : but 
tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high." 
— xxiv. 4g. 

" For John indeed baptized with water ; but ye shall be baptized with 
the Holy Ghost not many days hence." — Acts i. 5. 

" But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you : 
and ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judsea and 
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." — i. 8, 



"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and 
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born 
of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel 
not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born anew. The wind bloweth 
where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not 
whence it cometh, and whither it goeth : so is every one that is born of 
the Spirit."— John iit.j-8. 

« Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never 
thirst ; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of 
water springing up unto eternal life." — iv % 14. 

" Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, 
saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that 
believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow 
rivers of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that 
believed on Him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet given; 
because Jesus was not yet glorified." — vii. 37-39. 

" And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, 
that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth : Whom the 
world cannot receive ; for it beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth Him : 
ye know Him ; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you. I will not 
leave you desolate : I come unto you. Yet a little while, and the world 
beholdeth Me no more ; but ye behold Me : because I live, ye shall live 
also. In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, 
and I in you." — xiv. 16-20. 

" These things have I spoken unto you, while yet abiding with you. 
But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in 
My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance 
all that I said unto you." — xiv. 25, 26. 



" But when the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you from the 
Father, even the Spirit of truth, Which proceedeth from the Father, He 
shall bear witness of Me : and ye also bear witness, because ye have been 
with Me from the beginning." — xv. 26, 2j. 

" Nevertheless I tell you the truth ; It is expedient for you that I go 
away : for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but 
if I go, I will send Him unto you. And He, when He is come, will con- 
vict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment : 
of sin, because they believe not on Me ; of righteousness, because I go to 
the Father, and ye behold Me no more ; of judgment, because the prince 
of this world hath been judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, 
but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is 
come, He shall guide you into all the truth : for He shall not speak from 
Himself; but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak : 
and He shall declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall 
glorify Me : for He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you. All 
things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine : therefore said I, that He 
taketh of Mine, and shall declare it unto you." — xvi. 7-13. 

" Jesus therefore said to them again, Peace be unto you : as the Father 
hath sent Me, even so send I you. And when He had said this, He 
breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 
whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them ; whose soever 
sins ye retain, they are retained." — xx. 21-23. 



Ill 

THE SPIRIT 

Any one thus tabulating the words of Christ concerning 
the Spirit, as they are recorded by the four evangelists, will 
be inevitably impressed by certain facts which need to be 
stated as introductory to our study. 

First there is no systematic instruction concerning the 
existence of the Spirit ; but nevertheless there are certain 
assumptions, revealed in references to the Spirit, which suf- 
ficiently indicate our Lord's thought in this matter. 

Secondly, in our Lord's public ministry His references 
to the Holy Spirit, while comparatively few, were never- 
theless awe-inspiring and arresting. 

Thirdly, on the eve of His departure He gave to the 
inner circle of His disciples comprehensive teaching, not 
on the existence or nature of the Spirit, but concerning 
the work of the Spirit during the Christian era. 

The material at our disposal, then, in these Gospel narra- 
tives, for discovering the teaching of our Lord, is first, the 
references during His public ministry ; and secondly, the 
particular teaching given to His own disciples prior to His 
departure. 

Bearing in mind the first of these three facts, namely, 
the absence of systematic teaching concerning the nature 
of the Spirit, we will examine, first, the general teaching of 
His public ministry ; and secondly, the particular teaching 
of the Paschal discourses. 

The words in the former class were spoken not at one 
time, nor systematically ; but at different times, and incident- 
ally, in the course of our Lord's public ministry. 

49 



50 The Teaching of Christ 

An examination of the fourfold Gospel narrative shows 
that Matthew recorded four references by Christ to the Holy 
Spirit, Mark four, Luke seven, and John four. Some of 
these references of the Lord are recorded by more than one 
of the evangelists. 

Having first set these out as separate statements, in chrono- 
logical order as far as possible with regard to the ministry of 
our Lord, we will build thereon our estimate of values. 

The first reference to the Spirit in the ministry of our 
Lord was one revealing the relation of the Spirit to the King- 
dom of God, and to the Master's ministry in regard to that 
Kingdom. This is not the first reference to the Spirit in 
the narratives, but the first in Christ's own words ; and, so 
far as the records preserve the words to us, this was made 
in His conversation with Nicodemus. During His first 
Judaean ministry — a ministry of which we have no record in 
Matthew, Mark, or Luke ; a ministry to which John alone 
refers — while He was still in Jerusalem, Nicodemus came to 
Him, a seeker after truth, an honest soul to whom it was 
possible for Him to speak of deeper things. We are, of 
course, familiar with the intimate connection between the 
ending of the second chapter and the beginning of the third 
chapter in John's Gospel. The last statement of the second 
chapter is this : " Many believed on His name. . . . 
But Jesus did not trust Himself unto them, for that He knew 
all men ... for He Himself knew what was in man " ; l 
and the next chapter commences, " Now there was a man 
of the Pharisees,named Nicodemus," 2 to whom He did com- 
mit His heart, and to whom He could speak as to a man of 
absolute honesty and sincerity. To him, therefore, our Lord 
declared the relation of the work of the Spirit to the estab- 
lishment of the Kingdom of God in the heart of man ; and 
ultimately, of course, in the world. He told this man, to 
1 John ii. 23, 24. a Ibid., iii. I. 



The Spirit 51 

his utter amazement, that no man could enter into the 
Kingdom save by a new birth, a new beginning ; not by 
process of personal reformation, but by the process of re- 
generation from above. In that great declaration He made 
the first recorded reference to the Spirit of God. Man 
must be born of water and of the Spirit 5 that is, a man must 
not only take the step which John indicated in his preach- 
ing of repentance ; he must also be introduced to the King- 
dom, to see it, to be in it, by the regeneration of the Spirit 
of God. 

It is full of interest that in that first recorded reference to 
the Spirit our Lord not only recognized, but definitely de- 
clared, the mystery of the theme. " The wind bloweth 
where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but 
knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth : so is 
every one that is born of the Spirit " ; * and the " so " links 
the man who hears the wind to the man who is born of the 
Spirit. The new-born soul is related to the Spirit precisely 
as a man is related to the wind which he hears, and the fact 
of which he knows, but the source and goal of which are 
hidden from him. He knows the fact though he cannot 
explain the mystery. Thus upon the very threshold of His 
public ministry, so far from giving any systematic teaching 
as to the nature of the Spirit of God, our Lord told this 
seeking soul, and men for all time, that there is a mystery 
not revealed ; but that there are facts that demonstrate the 
profounder fact of the being and the activity of the Spirit of 
God. 

Next comes a group of references showing the relation of 
the Spirit of God to personal life. Of these the first is that 
to which, in another application, reference has been already 
made. In the story of the interview with Nicodemus is the 
word of Jesus concerning the Spirit, which shows that per- 

1 John iii. 8. 



5 2 The Teaching of Christ 

sonal Christianity, which is personal realization of the es- 
tablishment of the Kingdom of God, is the result of the 
regeneration of the Holy Spirit. 

The next in order of time occurred just after He had left 
Jerusalem, and while He was on His way to Galilee to com- 
mence the ministry recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. 
He halted at Samaria ; and there, under a figure of speech, 
He made His next reference to the Spirit, as He said to the 
woman of Samaria, " Whosoever drinketh of the water that 
I shall give him shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall 
give him shall become in him a well of water springing up 
unto eternal life." 1 That this statement referred to the ac- 
tivity of the Spirit is proved by the next reference, where, in 
interpretation of the figure of the running rivers of water 
we have the inspired word following, " this spake He of the 
Spirit." 2 

Thus, under a figure of speech, not by the declaration of 
a doctrine, but by the suggestion of an illustration, our Lord 
revealed the fact that when a man is by the Spirit born, the 
result is that he finds perfect satisfaction ; in his life there is 
no longer the thirst that agonizes for something never found j 
but the springing, laughing, living water, that brings him 
perpetual satisfaction. 

We find the record of the next reference in the seventh 
chapter of John, although our Lord said it long after the 
Galilean ministry, in the second Judaean ministry, and when 
He was back again in Jerusalem. On the last day of the 
feast, when the priests were no longer carrying the water in 
the golden vessels and pouring it forth upon the ground, 
symbolizing the day of the Spirit, towards the dawning of 
which the prophets had looked ; on the last day of the feast 
He said, " If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and 
drink." The thought is identical with that of the fourth 
1 John iv. 14. * Ibid., vii. 39. 



The Spirit 53 

chapter ; but He went further now, and said, " He that be- 
lieveth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly 
shall flow rivers of living water." 1 Thus speaking of the 
Spirit He declared that the true secret of influence in the 
world is that of the indwelling and outflowing Spirit through 
the life of man ; that influence in the world is to be created 
by the effluence of the Spirit of God from the life of the 
man born of the Spirit, and satisfied with the Spirit. 

It was then, after the visit to Jerusalem, but still in the 
second Judaean ministry, while on tour, that He uttered the 
word, which Luke alone records, in relation to prayer : " If 
ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give 
the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him ? " 2 

In that group of references we have His teaching con- 
cerning the relation of the Spirit to individual and personal 
life ; that man needs to be born of the Spirit in order to 
enter into the Kingdom of God ; that being born of the 
Spirit, the Spirit of God becomes in such a man a well of 
water springing up, and he never thirsts ; that the Spirit of 
God then becomes through him the rushing of rivers of 
water, fertilizing deserts, and satisfying the thirst of other 
people ; and finally that the Spirit of God is given to a man 
who asks for Him. 

In the next place we have a group of references showing 
the relation of the Spirit to Christ's own work. The first 
is a word which He spoke in the midst of the Galilean min- 
istry. It is chronicled by Matthew. He was arguing with 
the Pharisees. They had said that He cast out devils by 
Beelzebub, and He replied, " If I by Beelzebub cast out 
devils, by whom do your sons cast them out ? therefore shall 
they be your judges. But if I by the Spirit of God cast out 
devils, then is the Kingdom of God come upon you." 3 
1 John vii. 37-38. * Luke xi. 13. 3 Matt. xii. 27, 28. 



54 The Teaching of Christ 

In that word, which was incidental, it is perfectly clear 
that our Lord intended to declare that all His activity in the 
interests of the Kingdom of God, in the exorcism of devils, 
was activity in cooperation with the Spirit. 

Then in that great soliloquy of Luke, a soliloquy that 
broke from His heart in the midst of the second Judaean 
ministry, He declared His purpose in the words : " I came 
to cast fire upon the earth." " In the light of other Scrip- 
tures we know that this was a declaration that the ultimate 
meaning of His ministry was, in some way, not then to be 
disclosed to men, not then to be explained, for men could not 
understand j but in some way to give the Spirit of God, and 
make Him available to all men, as a fire for purity, as a fire 
for energy ; but He declared that He was unable to fulfill 
that greater mission until He Himself had passed through 
the passion-baptism towards which His face was set, and 
without which His work could never be completed. 

In a passing allusion He declared that when David wrote 
his psalm long ago, he wrote in the Spirit ; that in the psalm, 
which the rulers and interpreters of the age were unable to 
explain, the psalm in which David spoke of Messiah and 
said, " The Lord said unto my Lord," 2 he wrote in the 
Spirit. To whom was he referring ? said Jesus ; and they 
replied, To Messiah, to Christ ; and His question to them 
was, " David himself calleth Him Lord ; and whence is He 
his Son ? " It was His challenging question to these men 
as to His own Person. They could give Him no answer. 
Thus here Christ referred to the action of the Spirit long be- 
fore as inspiring the prophetic songs that set forth the fact 
of His own Person, and the meaning of His own ministry. 

Going back now to the Galilean ministry, we find that 
in Galilee He first uttered those words of solemn warning 
in which He declared that the blasphemy against the Holy 
1 Luke xii. 49. * Mark xii. 36, 37. 



The Spirit $$ 

Spirit is the sin that has no forgiveness. These words we 
can never read without an almost appalling sense of awe 
possessing the soul. Both Matthew and Mark record that 
declaration of Christ in Galilee, and Luke states that He re- 
peated this warning in the course of the second Judaean min- 
istry. 1 Thus the solemn words, — whatever their import 
may be, — concerning the Spirit of God, belong both to the 
early Galilean ministry, and to the later Judaean ministry ; 
and in each case were uttered in close connection with that 
criticism of the Pharisees in which they tried to account for 
the action of the Lord as being due to the influence of devils. 
Our Lord did not say that these men had committed the un- 
pardonable sin, but they had approached very near ; for when 
a man says of such a Christ that He works by the power of 
Satan, he is coming very near to definite and final rejection 
of that Christ ; and such rejection is the sin against the Holy 
Ghost, because the ministry of the Holy Spirit is that of co- 
operating with Christ in the casting out of devils, in the 
revelation of the Father, in the establishment of the King- 
dom, by the remaking and the perfecting of men. And if 
a man shall resist that Christ, and refuse Him, that is the one 
and only sin that has no forgiveness ; for, as Christ said, it is 
eternal sin, the age-abiding sin, the sin from which there can 
be no escape ; the sin therefore which cannot be forgiven. 

Then there is another group of Scriptures, showing the 
relation of the Spirit to the work of the disciples. Three 
times over, once in the Galilean ministry, and finally in the 
last visit to Jerusalem itself, our Lord said practically the 
same thing to His disciples. He told them that in the day 
of persecution, when they should be arraigned and im- 
prisoned and beaten and buffeted even to death, they were 
never to be anxious about their defense ; for, said He, the 
Spirit of your Father within you shall speak, the Spirit of 
1 Matt. xii. 31, 32. Mark iii. 29. Luke xii. 10-12. 



56 The Teaching of Christ 

God will teach you what to say, the Spirit of God will speak 
through you. 1 

Then we have a group of references after the resurrec- 
tion. In every phase of His great commission to His dis- 
ciples there was some reference to the Spirit. Mark, Luke, 
and John tell the story of the events of the first day of resur- 
rection in the upper room. The commission recorded by 
Matthew was uttered in Galilee long after, at a private 
gathering of the risen Lord with the saints. Each teaches 
us some phase of the commission. Mark recorded His 
words : " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved " ; 2 
and the baptism is of course the baptism of the Spirit, and 
not of water. Water baptism is the sign and symbol of the 
spiritual fact ; but the regenerating baptism is that of the 
Spirit. John wrote of that anticipative breathing when our 
Lord said, " Receive ye the Spirit," 3 in order to the ministry 
which shall bring the forgiveness of sins to men. It was 
a prophetic breathing ; they did not receive the Spirit of God 
then, for Luke tells how, immediately following, our Lord 
told them to tarry until the Spirit came ; and in the final word 
in Luke we find the promise of the coming of the Spirit. 4 

Then in Matthew's account of the appointed meeting in 
Galilee we have our Lord's reference to the Spirit in the 
great commission, when He said, " Baptizing them into the 
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost " ; 5 
thus by reference to the Spirit indicating the union of the 
Spirit with the Father and the Son. 

Once again, forty days after resurrection, two other refer- 
ences to the Spirit are found in Acts, 6 showing the relation 
of the disciples to the Spirit, and the Spirit to the disciples 
for work. He promised the baptism of the Spirit " not 

1 Matt. x. 20. Mark xiii. II. Luke xii. 12. < Luke xxiv. 49. 

8 Mark xvi. 16. 5 Matt, xxviii. 19. 

3 John xx. 22. 6 Acts i. 5, 8. 



The Spirit 57 

many days hence " ; and then declared that the coming of 
the Spirit to them would bring them power for the accom- 
plishment of His work. 

Thus we have seen, by the grouping of these references 
of Christ under different headings, that our Lord revealed 
the relation of the Spirit to the Kingdom of God, the relation 
of the Spirit to the personal life of the individual, the rela- 
tion of the Spirit to His own work, and the relation of the 
Spirit to the work of His disciples immediately, and to the 
end of the present dispensation. 

Looking back over these passages of Scripture it is again 
evident that there was no attempt on the part of the Lord 
at systematic teaching. That in itself is a matter of su- 
preme importance. It is a dangerous thing in doctrinal 
teaching to argue from silence. Yet there is a value in ob- 
serving the things about which Christ said practically noth- 
ing. When we find Him silent on some great matter we 
may be content to be silent on that subject too. We are 
always in danger of losing the supreme value of this whole 
fact of the ministry of the Holy Spirit when we are eager 
and anxious to state systematically, or even theologically, 
all the facts concerning the Spirit of God, and the relation 
of the Spirit of God to the Trinity ; topics on which no 
final word can be said. And it is infinitely better that we 
should ever abide in this matter where Christ left the sub- 
ject, for on the subject of the nature of the Spirit of God 
He made no advance upon that first mystic, suggestive, and 
beautiful word spoken to Nicodemus : " The wind bloweth 
where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but 
knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth." ' 
The fact we know, but all the mystery of it we do not 
know, nor can we ! But knowing the fact, we postpone, 
at least for the present, the attempt to understand the mys- 

1 John iii. 8. 



58 The Teaching of Christ 

tery, and obeying the fact we find the great force serving 
our purpose, and accomplishing our end. Is that not the 
law of the wind ? Dr. Jowett, when he wanted to preach 
upon this very passage, went down to Tynemouth, and sat 
by an old sailor, a real sailor^ a man who had spent many 
years upon a sailing vessel ; and said to him, " Do you 
know anything about the wind ? ' "Yes, sir, I know a 
lot about the wind." " Well, will you explain to me the 
phenomenon of the wind ? " " I don't know what you 
mean, sir." " Well, how do you explain the wind : what 
do you know about it ? " " No, sir, I don't know any- 
thing about the wind ; but I know the wind, and I can 
hoist a sail ! " That is the whole philosophy of this teach- 
ing. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou near- 
est the voice thereof" — we know the fact; "but knowest 
not whence it cometh and whither it goeth " — that is the 
mystery ; but knowing the fact we hoist the sail, and the 
fact becomes the force that drives our vessel across the lake, 
though when we get to the other side we know no more 
about the mystery of it than we did when we started ; but 
our vessel has been carried over ; " so is every one that is 
born of the Spirit." The man born of the Spirit comes to 
recognition of the blowing of the wind, a voice in the soul, 
a vision before the ^eye, a new touch of power upon the 
life ; and, in effect, he says, Whence, I cannot tell ; whither, 
I know not; what, I cannot discover; but I will hoist the 
sail ; I will act upon the impulse suggested ; and imme- 
diately the force of the Spirit enters into the life, and pres- 
ently he arrives at the desired haven, because recognizing 
the mystery, and knowing the fact, he has been obedient to 
the law of the fact, and the fact has been a force coopera- 
tive with his life. To my own mind, that great silence of 
Jesus, that recognition of mystery, is in itself one of the most 
wonderful things in all His teaching concerning the Spirit. 



The Spirit 59 

Yet let us gather these three definite values from this 
collection of passages : the assumption of the Being of the 
Spirit ; the suggestion of the nature of the Spirit ; and the 
revelation of relationship. 

What is this assumption^of Being ? Jesus assumed the 
Being of the Spirit of God, and the terms of His references 
preclude our imagining that He thought only of an influ- 
ence. Listen to His terms : " The Spirit of your Father." » 
That may leave us a little in doubt. Listen again : " The 
Spirit of God " ; 2 and even there we may imagine that there 
is nothing very definite. But listen again : " The Spirit " ; 3 
and that word was used in such connection as to leave no 
possibility of doubt that He was thinking of a Person ; He 
was thinking of intelligence, of emotion, and of volition, 
and therefore of the sum and substance of these things, 
which is personality. His references to the Spirit were 
references always to activities ; the regenerative activity, by 
which a man is born from above; the gift of speech, by 
which men take no trouble to make a defense, but have 
words to speak given them at the moment ; the activity of 
exorcism, whereby through the word of Christ the devil is 
compelled to leave a man, and the man is healed, and that 
for the establishment of the Kingdom of God. Christ 
spoke of the Spirit by such terms as recognized His Being 
as a Person, and as One active in the universe of God. 

These references of Christ also suggest the nature of the 
Spirit. He spoke of " The Spirit," and that suggests the 
nature. Does it also present a difficulty ? Can any one 
define Spirit ? Let us simply say as we did in considering 
our Lord's declaration that God is Spirit ; that Spirit is 
freedom from the limitations of space and time. That is at 
least a hint as to nature. 

But He also spoke of " The Spirit of God " ; and in our 
1 Matt. x. 20. 3 I6id. t xii. 28. 8 Ibid., 31. 



60 The Teaching of Christ 

Lord s use of the word " God," is the thought of might, of 
majesty, of absolute supremacy, and final sovereignty ; and 
when He said " The Spirit of God," it is evident that He 
thought of the Spirit as related to these attributes. That 
again is a gleam of light upon the nature of the Spirit. 

But once again He spoke of " the Spirit of your Father." 
In our study on the teaching of Christ concerning God, 
we pointed out that He only used two names of God defi- 
nitely ; one GW, and the other Father ; and hence the mean- 
ing and value of the Pauline and Petrine expression, " The 
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Now notice 
that in reference to the Spirit He used the same two words 
in order to give us an idea of the nature of the Spirit : the 
" Spirit of God," and the " Spirit of the Father." So that 
everything we think of, when we think of God as God, we 
may bring over into our thinking concerning the nature of the 
Spirit : all the ability to sustain, all the tender solicitude for 
welfare, all thought of love and passion and strength which we 
conceive as in God, we may think of as in the Spirit of God. 

However, our Lord's favourite designation, if we may 
judge by the number of times He made use of it, was " The 
Holy Spirit." He clearly thought of the Spirit as holy in 
nature ; the Spirit of purity and of right, the Holy Spirit. 

These references do not constitute systematic teaching ; 
they only afford suggestions, but they are suggestions 
which, when gathered together, and allowed to create an 
impression upon the mind, bring us very near to an under- 
standing of the nature of the Spirit. " The Spirit of God " ; 
"The Spirit of the Father"; "The Holy Spirit." 

And finally, these references are a revelation of relations. 
They show that the Spirit is one with God, in His Being, 
and in His activity; for they indicate that Christ regarded 
the Spirit as working with God and for Him ; and that He 
Himself wrought in the power of the Spirit. 



The Spirit 61 

These references by our Lord also show that He thought 
of the Spirit of God as the One Who gives life to men, new 
life to men, enabling them to see the vision of His glory, com- 
municating to them the virtue whereby they will be able to 
win the victory, themselves submitted to the King, becoming 
workers with the King for the bringing in of His Kingdom. 

If tempted to say that all this leaves the matter very much 
in the realm of mystery, remember that we have only been 
considering the more public and incidental references of our 
Lord to the Spirit. 

We now turn to the special teaching of the Lord con- 
cerning the Holy Spirit, given to His disciples. It is nec- 
essary that we should recognize that it was special teaching, 
and that in at least three ways ; as to those to whom it was 
given, as to the time at which it was given, and as to the 
scope of the teaching itself. 

All the words of the Paschal discourses were spoken to 
the disciples only ; and it is a most significant fact that, ac- 
cording to this record, they contain no word concerning the 
coming or ministry of the Spirit until Judas was excluded from 
the company. In the early portion of the Paschal celebration 
he was present. He was even there when our Lord washed 
the disciples' feet ; but ere a word passed the lips of Christ 
concerning the mission of the Spirit, he had been excluded. 

The teaching was special also as to the time at which it 
was given ; these words are among the very last things He said. 
The shadow of the Cross was most evidently over the feast. 
The disciples were strangely perplexed and perturbed, utterly 
unable to understand their Master. This indeed had been so 
from that hour when at Caesarea Philippi He had first spoken 
to them of the Cross. Restlessness was rife so far as they 
were concerned. He alone was quiet, calm, and dignified. 

Finally, the teaching was special in its scope. It was 
specific teaching on the work of the Spirit in relation to His 



62 The Teaching of Christ 

own disciples. These special words, spoken to the inner 
circle, are as devoid of systematic teaching concerning the 
existence and nature of the Spirit as were the incidental 
references during the public ministry. Over the whole of 
these instructions, also, we may write that word " The wind 
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, 
but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth ; 
so is every one that is born of the Spirit." * 

Observe also that this teaching was intermixed with other 
matters, and closely related thereto. These Paschal dis- 
courses contain four distinct paragraphs on the coming and 
work of the Spirit ; and it will be helpful to notice at once 
the setting of these references. During the observance of 
the Paschal feast our Lord had risen, and had washed the 
feet of the disciples, instructing them on the duty of love 
expressed in service. After that Judas was excluded, and 
the Lord spoke more particularly on the subject of His ap- 
proaching departure. As He did so He was interrupted; 
first by the troubled question of Peter, u Whither goest 
Thou ? " ; 2 next by the protesting enquiry of Thomas, 
"Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; how know we 
the way ? " ; 3 then by the great cry of Philip, " Show us 
the Father, and it sufficeth us." 4 In the course of His an- 
swer to Philip, for the first time He promised the Paraclete. 5 

Continuing His discourse, He spoke of the relation of 
obedience to love, told them how the expression of love to 
Him was that of loyalty ; and in conclusion He again spoke 
of the ministry of the Paraclete, and immediately gave them 
His word of peace. 6 

Then leaving the upper room in the midst of the dis- 
courses, it is not certain where they went. Some believe 
that the words concerning the vine were spoken as they 

1 John iii. 8. 3 Ibid., xiv. 5. 5 Ibid., 16-17. 

2 Ibid., xiii. 36. * Ibid., 8. * Ibid., 26-27. 



The Spirit 63 

walked over the brook Kidron towards Gethsemane. Others 
believe that they went specially to the Temple, and that in 
the silence of the night these words were uttered in the 
presence of that golden vine which was one of the glories 
of the Temple. Of these things we are not sure ; but it is 
perfectly certain that under the figure of the vine He spoke 
to them of the new relationship which presently would 
exist between them and Himself; and emphasized the pos- 
sibility of service under the figure of fruit-bearing ; and in 
this connection He again spoke of the Paraclete. 1 

He then told them of trials and persecutions awaiting 
them, and in that connection uttered His final word about the 
Paraclete; 2 and then completed His discourse, and uttered the 
great intercessory prayer. Thus He dealt with their need 
in the days so rapidly approaching, when He, as to bodily 
presence, should no longer be with them. He recognized their 
loneliness ; their duty to Him ; their coming responsibilities 
in service ; the suffering and persecution that such service and 
such life would bring ; and He linked each of these things 
with the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Their loneliness was 
to be cancelled by the coming of the Paraclete. Their duty 
to Him was to be made possible of fulfillment by the presence 
of the Holy Spirit. Their fruitfulness in service was to be 
ensured by the ministry of the Spirit. Their suffering was to 
be endured in the strength of their fellowship with that Spirit. 

There are three things to note in a survey of this teach- 
ing : first, to observe the meaning of our Lord's references 
to the Spirit; secondly, to attend to His special teaching 
concerning the relation of the Spirit to His own disciples ; 
and finally, to make a deduction of values for our help. 

In these discourses our Lord referred to the Spirit in 
three ways. He spoke of Him as the " Comforter," as 
" the Spirit of truth," and as " the Holy Spirit." 
1 John xv. 26-27. » Ibid., xvi. 7-14. 



64 The Teaching of Christ 

Instead of w Comforter " let us employ the anglicized 
form of the Greek word, Paraclete. He used that term in 
each one of these declarations, and it is remarkable that 
these are the only occasions where the word is used in the 
New Testament, except once when, in the first letter of 
John, it is used of Christ Himself. 

The word in itself is an inclusive and final revelation of 
all the truth He desired to teach them as to the relation of 
the Spirit to their lives and ministry, when as to bodily 
presence He would be unseen. 

The word Paraclete simply means, One called to the 
side of. That opens the way for an understanding of the 
suggestiveness of the word. It is a word quite common in 
all Greek literature, but to be found in the Greek version 
of the Old Testament. In Greek literature its sense is 
always that of an advocate, that is, one who takes up the 
cause of another, and defends it. 

Whence then came our word " Comforter " ? It has 
been suggested that the word " Comforter " is used in its 
true, old sense of One Who strengthens. That is rather 
an apology for, than an explanation of, the employment of 
the word. Undoubtedly to use it in that sense would be 
absolutely accurate. But we owe the presence of the word 
" Comforter " to the Greek Church, which insisted upon it 
that the great sense of value in our Lord's use of the word 
was not so much that the Holy Spirit was to come as an 
Advocate, as that He was to come to console, and in that 
sense to comfort the souls of the disciples. 

Now it is of great importance that we should admit the 
element of truth in that statement, and yet let us see what 
this really means. The first time our Lord used the word 
He coupled with it a very simple word, one of those words 
we are very apt to hurry over when we are reading, but 
which gives a key to the situation. He said, " I will pray 



The Spirit 65 

the Father, and He shall give you " — not a Comforter, but 
" another Comforter." ■ And if, as is so often the case in 
exposition of this kind, it seems as though we were laying 
undue stress upon an unimportant word, yet ponder it care- 
fully. The word " another " here is of a particular nature 
and character. It is allos^ not heteros ; and consequently the 
word another does not indicate a different quality, but a simi- 
larity of quality, and a distinction of Person. The value of 
the use of the word u another " is that it presupposes a previ- 
ous Comforter; and thus in His use of the word Paraclete, 
our Lord suggested that His own work in the case of these 
men might be designated by that term. He had been the 
Paraclete. He had been the One summoned to their side. 
He had been with them ; they had been with Him; in fellow- 
ship with Him they had seen more deeply into the things of 
God, they had heard the voices with which they had been 
unfamiliar until He came and spoke to them ; in His pres- 
ence they had known courage and strength ; with Him they 
had felt that they could dare everything ; but their trouble 
was that He was going. Under these circumstances He 
said, I will send you another Paraclete ; Another to stand by 
your side, Another to take exactly the same place that I have 
filled in your lives during these past three years, Another to 
be the Advocate of God with you. I think if we compare 
the way in which Jesus used the word Paraclete with John's 
use of it in his letter, we may be helped to an understanding 
of its value. Said John, " We have an Advocate with the 
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 2 The risen Christ 
stands as our Advocate with God in the high places of the 
heavens; and the Spirit dwells with us as His Advocate, in 
the life and service of the earth. As Christ pleads the cause 
of man in heaven, so the Spirit pleads the cause of God on 
earth. He is the Advocate. 

1 John xiv. 16. 3 1 John ii. I. 



66 The Teaching of Christ 

It has been objected that our word " Comforter " has 
absolutely no place in the thought of the word Paraclete. 
I differ from that view entirely. If the thought be that of 
an advocate, as one who pleads a cause, there is involved in 
that idea the very essence of comfort. My advocate, in that 
sense, is the man who has knowledge superior to mine ; all 
of which he places at my disposal, so that I can repose in 
the things he knows, and remit to him all the questions that 
would be of difficulty to me. There is in this fact all com- 
fort to me, that the Spirit of God has this as His office ; all 
His knowledge of God is at my disposal, all the will of God 
He will reveal to me, all the way of God He will manifest 
to me. That is comfort indeed. 

Another descriptive phrase of which the Lord made use 
was, " the Spirit of truth." Truth is the source from which 
the Spirit comes to fulfill His ministry ; truth is the charac- 
teristic of the Spirit Himself; truth is the effort of the Spirit 
in the life of the believer; truth is the result produced, 
wherever the soul yields to the ministry of the Spirit. The 
phrase, of truth, suggests truth in its simplicity and its finality. 
Bengel wrote most impressively about it when he declared 
that truth is the only fact that cannot be falsified. There 
may be false knowledge, false hope, false faith, false love, 
but never false truth. Thus the description, " the Spirit of 
truth," is the simple and final word, revealing the deepest 
fact of the character of the Spirit. 

He made use of another phrase, " the Holy Spirit," re- 
vealing the character of the Spirit, revealing therefore the 
nature of the inspiration of the Spirit in the life of the soul, 
revealing also the character of the energy which the Spirit 
will communicate. The word holy in itself suggests awful- 
ness or distance ; and in its use, an awe-inspiring purity. 

By these terms, without any attempt at doctrinal state- 
ment or systematic teaching concerning the nature of the 



The Spirit 67 

Spirit, the Lord revealed at once the new relation of the 
Spirit to believing souls ; and the character of the Spirit 
Who was coming into such new relationship. 

We turn to the special teaching of our Lord; and notice 
two things, first, that He made a definite promise that the 
Spirit was to come ; and secondly, that He revealed the 
purpose of the coming. 

He promised an advent of the Spirit. Every paragraph 
refers to this. The Spirit was to be given, the Spirit was to 
be sent, the Spirit was to come. This use of terms is very 
difficult to explain. Although we believe in the immanence 
of the Spirit of God in all life, and that there is a sense in 
which those terms that indicate space, and time, cannot be 
used of essential Deity, we are at once confronted by them 
through all this teaching of Jesus, in which He spoke of the 
Spirit as being given, as being sent, and as coming. They are 
figures of speech, and our Lord was referring to the fact that 
after His departure there would be a new method adopted in 
the economy of God on the part of the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit had not been unknown in human history 
prior to the coming of Christ. Men had been taught that 
the Spirit had been specially associated with the cosmos from 
that hour of restoration which the first page of Genesis re- 
cords. The restoration of a lost order was accomplished by 
the brooding of the Spirit over the abyss. In the Old 
Testament men spoke of the Spirit, and a ministry of the 
Spirit was constantly referred to. Yet Christ now definitely 
said to His disciples that there was to be a coming, a send- 
ing, a giving. All of which indicated the fact that there 
was to be a new method of spiritual ministry, resulting from 
His presence and His work, and contributory to the carry- 
ing on of the consciousness of that presence, and the con- 
tinuity of that work. 

He first declared that the Spirit should be given by the 



68 The Teaching of Christ 

Father, and the word given there does not mean sent, but 
assigned ; given by the Father to His disciples in answer to 
His own prayer. " I will pray the Father, and He shall 
assign the Spirit to you, that He may be with you forever." ' 
Here is the suggestion of a difference from anything that 
had been revealed in the economy of the Old Testament. 
There we read of the Spirit clothing Himself with a man, 
clothing a man with Himself; coming to inspire men for 
special work, the singing of a song, the weaving of a fabric, 
the working in gold for the perfecting of the Tabernacle. 
The suggestion throughout is of special wisdom and illu- 
mination and power for special occasions. But now, said 
Christ, My Father, in answer to My asking, will give you 
the Spirit to abide with you forever ; that is a new method 
of the Spirit, the perpetual superseding the occasional ; the 
Spirit no longer to be, in the case of His disciples, One 
Who came with a flash and a light, a vision and a glory, but 
One Who remained in close, personal, perpetual relationship. 
Then our Lord said that He should be sent by the Father 
in the name of the Son ; a little later He said He should be 
sent by the Son from the Father j and later still He declared 
that He should be sent by the Son ; and the last reference to 
the new advent of the Spirit is one that speaks of the Spirit 
as neither given nor sent, but coming of Himself. These 
statements seem to be almost mutually destructive. As a 
matter of fact these very terms about an advent of the Spirit, 
or a new method of the Spirit in the history of men, involve 
a sense of sacred and mystic relationships, which we can 
never finally explain or understand ; given by the Father ; 
sent by the Father ; sent by the Son from the Father ; sent 
by the Son without reference to the Father ; coming of Him- 
self. But whatever the mystery of the method, the fact is 
patent that our Lord declared to this group of men in these 

1 John xiv. 16. 



The Spirit 69 

Paschal discourses that they were approaching a new era of 
spiritual power, and spiritual relationship, in which the Spirit 
of God should no longer make Himself known as a Visitor, 
upon occasion, for a purpose ; but that He should be a per- 
petual Presence, a perpetual Power in the life of believers. 

He was perfectly clear, all through these discourses, as to 
the special purpose of this new method and manifestation. 
The purpose of the Spirit's advent as regards the Son would 
be first to make His Presence known. This is taught in the 
first paragraph. I am going away, your hearts are filled with 
sorrow, I will not leave you desolate, I will not leave you 
orphans, I will not leave you lonely. In the first paragraph 
there is a strange merging of two ideas, I will send another 
Paraclete. ... I will come to you ; so that the An- 
other would not be Another in the consciousness of the dis- 
ciples ; but Another Who would make them conscious of 
the fact of the presence of Christ. 

The teaching of the second paragraph in this application 
is that the Spirit would bring to their remembrance His past 
teaching. 

The third paragraph teaches that He would bear witness 
of Him, that is, explain Him. That declaration is put into 
close connection with the fact that the world had hated Him, 
but the Spirit would bear witness of Him, and reveal the 
truth concerning Him, in the presence of the world's hatred. 

The teaching of the fourth paragraph is that the Spirit 
would make Him the centre of the world's religious con- 
sciousness, convicting men of sin, of righteousness, of judg- 
ment, all in relation to Himself: " Of sin, because they be- 
lieve not on Me ; of righteousness, because I go to the Father 
. ; of judgment, because the prince of this world hath 
been judged." Finally the Lord declared that the Spirit 
would come to glorify Him in His own disciples. 

The purposes of the coming of the Spirit as to the dis- 



70 The Teaching of Christ 

ciples we have already seen incidentally. Let us now state 
them definitely. He came first to disannul orphanhood, to 
take away the sense of loneliness, to make desolateness im- 
possible ; and all this entirely and only by creating the con- 
sciousness of Christ. A great many people are making the 
supreme mistake of expecting a consciousness of the Spirit ; 
yet that which the Spirit creates is not a consciousness of 
Himself, but a consciousness of Christ. Upon this the 
Lord was most explicit from beginning to end ; the Spirit 
shall not speak of Himself, or concerning Himself; so that 
the test of the measure of our fellowship with the Spirit is 
not our knowledge of the Spirit, but our knowledge of the 
Christ Whom the Spirit reveals. He came secondly to re- 
call to the disciples the words of past commandments ; 
thirdly to cooperate with them in their witness to Christ ; 
and finally to guide them into all the truth. 

The purpose of the coming of the Spirit as to the world 
was that of conviction, that is, interpretation, discerning 
judgment, illumination on the great cardinal matters of 
religious experience. Wherever there is a true religious ex- 
perience in the history of a man, these are the cardinal mat- 
ters : sin, righteousness, judgment; sin as a fact, however it 
may be explained ; righteousness as a great ideal, however 
unattainable it may be ; judgment as a terrific necessity, how- 
ever much it may be denied. The ministry of the Spirit in 
the world is to put Christ at the centre of all these cardinal 
matters of which the world becomes conscious when it 
comes to religious awakening of any kind. Sin in the pres- 
ence of the presented Christ becomes refusal to believe in 
Him : righteousness is demonstrated as possible to men be- 
cause of the triumph of the Christ ; and judgment is revealed 
as already accomplished by the Christ in His conflict with 
evil. The Spirit was to come to make these things real in 
the consciousness of the world. 



The Spirit 71 

The Spirit can only fulfill this ministry as the Church 
is in true fellowship with Him. That also is another value 
of this whole teaching ; but taking for granted that the 
Church is at the disposal of her Lord to carry the message, 
and to deliver it, then it is in the power of the Spirit that 
Christ is demonstrated, and conviction comes to the mind 
of the world. 

Our deduction of values may be briefly stated. The first 
is that of a new sense of the mystery of the whole subject. 
And after a careful study of these passages, that which ar- 
rests our attention is the strange and mystic sense of trinity 
in unity. Does the mathematician affirm that this is a con- 
tradiction of terms ? He is quite right j and yet here it is ; 
a merging of activities, the Son asking, the Father sending ; 
the Son sending, the Spirit coming ; and yet a unity of ac- 
tivity, the unseen God revealed in the Son, the Son not 
known by men, for " no one knoweth the Son, save the 
Father " ; the unknown Son revealed by the ministry of 
the Spirit. The unseen Spirit exercises a ministry of reve- 
lation from the Father through the Son to the disciples ; yet 
never makes Himself the consciousness of the disciples ; 
but centralizing their consciousness in the Christ, through 
Him they have consciousness of the Father, and know the 
presence and power of the Spirit. 

Secondly, the office of the Spirit is here revealed as that 
of the Medium of union between the Christ and His people ; 
the Medium of vision whereby they see the Christ as they 
had never seen Him before ; the Medium of energy, ena- 
bling them to obey the light as it comes ; the Medium of 
consolation, for by the very strength and purity of His ad- 
vocacy, constraining to obedience, the heart is filled with a 
sense of comfort. 

The final value is to be found in an understanding of the 
present fact. Jesus said, " I will pray the Father, and He 



72 The Teaching of Christ 

shall give you another Paraclete, that He may be with you 
forever" 1 In this connection let us recognize the fact that 
this word for " pray " is never used save in John's Gospel, 
and is never used of any prayer other than the prayer of 
Christ. It is one that suggests familiarity, equality, and 
perfect right. " I will make request of," reads the margin 
of the Revised Version ; but that does not bring us much 
nearer the truth. It has been suggested that it might be 
translated, " I will enquire of the Father"; but even that 
might convey the idea of some measure of ignorance. The 
word really conveys the thought of the turning to the Father 
of One Who asks no gift from Him, but who indicates to 
Him, in perfect fellowship of purpose and power, the gift 
that He would bestow upon His people. 

When did He pray that prayer ? The great intercessory 
prayer in the seventeenth chapter of John immediately fol- 
lows these discourses ; but there is not a single reference to 
the Holy Spirit therein from beginning to end. The prayer 
for the Spirit was not a prayer offered definitely, in our sense 
of praying ; it was the prayer of His own triumphant pres- 
ence in Heaven. So Peter surely understood the word of 
Christ, when on the day of Pentecost he delivered his first 
message, and declared when men asked " What meaneth 
this ? " that this outpouring of the Spirit, and the manifes- 
tations following thereupon, had resulted from the presence 
of the Man of Nazareth at the right hand of God, " He 
hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear." 2 The 
thought of Jesus was that the Spirit would be given in new 
fashion to men, not in answer to their praying, not because 
of their worthiness, but as the great gift which He Himself 
would bestow as the result of the completion of His own 
mission, and by the way of His passion. 

And so the Spirit was given in that new sense, and He 
1 John xiv. 1 6. a Acts ii. 12, 33. 



The Spirit 73 

has never been withdrawn. The upper room on the day 
of Pentecost, when the tongues of fire were seen, was not 
more the shrine of the Spirit than are the places of Chris- 
tian assembly to-day ; and there came to these men a gift 
no more real and definite than is ours, if we are indeed the 
Lord's own disciples. 

Then let us ever remember that the Spirit is with us ; to 
disannul all orphanhood, to give a clear consciousness of 
the living Christ, to strengthen for witness bearing, to make 
strong in the midst of suffering, and to realize within men 
all the purposes of their Lord. 



IV. ANGELS 



" The reapers are angels . . . The Son of Man shall send forth 
His angels, and they shall gather out of His Kingdom all things that 
cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the 
furnace of fire : there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth." — 
Matthew xiii. 3g, 41 , 42. 

" The angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the 
righteous, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire : there shall be the 
weeping and gnashing of teeth." — xiii. 4q> 30. 

" For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His 
angels ; and then shall He render unto every man according to his deeds." 
— xvi. 27. 

" See that ye despise not one of these little ones ; for I say unto you, 
that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father which 
is in heaven." — xviii. 10. 

" For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, 
but are as angels in heaven." — xxii. 30. 

" And He shall send forth His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, 
and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one 
end of heaven to the other." 

" But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of 
heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only." — xxiv. 31, 36. 

" But when the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the angels 
with Him, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory." — xxv. 31. 

" Or thinkest thou that I cannot beseech My Father, and He shall even 
now send Me more than twelve legions of angels ? " — xxvi. 33. 



" For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and My words in this adul- 
terous and sinful generation, r the Son of Man also shall be ashamed of him, 
when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." — 
Mark viii. 38. 

" For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are 
given in marriage ; but are as angels in heaven." — xii. 23. 

" And then shall He send forth the angels, and shall gather together 
His elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the 
uttermost part of heaven." 



" But of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in 
heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." — xiii. 27, 32. 



" For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him shall 
the Son of Man be ashamed, when He cometh in His own glory, and the 
glory of the Father, and of the holy angels." — Luke ix. 26. 

" Every one who shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of 
Man also confess before the angels of God : but he that denieth Me in 
the presence of men shall be denied in the presence of the angels of 
God." — xii. 8, 9. 

" Even so, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of 
God over one sinner that repenteth." — xv. 10. 

" It came to pass, that the beggar died, and that he was carried away 
by the angels into Abraham's bosom." — xvi. 22. 

" For neither can they die any more : for they are equal unto the 
angels." — xx. 36. 



11 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye shall see the heavens opened, and 
the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."— 
John i, ji. 



IV 

ANGELS 

Each of the evangelists has some story or stories to tell 
of angel ministry in connection with the incarnate Lord. 

Matthew records the appearing of an angel to Joseph, the 
reputed father of Jesus, three times; then of how angels 
ministered to Jesus after the period of temptation in the 
wilderness ; and finally, of the coming of the angel to roll 
away the stone, not to liberate Christ, but to show that He 
was already risen ; and of his declaration to the two Marys 
that the Lord was risen, and His charge to them to go and 
tell His disciples. 

Mark significantly only speaks of the ministry of angels 
after the temptation. 

Luke records the visits of Gabriel to Zacharias and to 
Mary ; the appearance of an angel to the shepherds, and of 
the making of the night full of music with the chorus of the 
heavenly visitors. He also tells of the coming of an angel 
into Gethsemane, and of how he ministered to the Man of 
Sorrows in the hour of His darkness ; and finally of how two 
disciples, walking to Emmaus, reported that certain women 
claimed to have seen a vision of angels. 

John circumstantially describes how Mary, looking into 
the sepulchre, from which the stone had been rolled away, 
saw two angels in white, sitting one at the head, and one 
at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 

All these references are simple, natural, straightforward, 
without apology, and without argument. It is impossible 
to read these stories, and believe in the truthfulness of the 
men who wrote them, without at least discovering that they 

79 



80 The Teaching of Christ 

evidently themselves believed in angels ; and moreover, that 
they wrote for those who shared that belief. Their own 
belief in angels is evidenced by the very naturalness and 
simplicity with which they told their stories. Their cer- 
tainty that those for whom they wrote believed in angels is 
evidenced by the fact that they never argued for the truth 
of their stories. 

When we turn to the words of our Lord for enlighten- 
ment on the subject of angels we again find no systematic 
teaching ; but we have such references as set the seal of 
His authority upon the belief in the existence of angels; 
and we have such incidental statements as reveal something 
of their nature, character, and ministry. 

In grouping these references chronologically, it is inter- 
esting to note that the great majority of them occur in the 
records of the later part of His ministry. While I am not 
prepared to set any particular value upon the fact; in all 
the earlier ministry, He hardly made any reference to angels, 
as He made hardly any reference to the Spirit. The earlier 
ministry would seem to have been almost exclusively con- 
fined to the enunciation of an ethic, and the revelation of a 
power equal to the realization of the ethical ideal presented. 
That however must not be taken as final interpretation of 
the fact. 

One great word concerning angels was however spoken 
in the very earliest ministry. It is the only reference to 
angels from the lips of Jesus recorded by John ; and yet 
John was the mystic, the dreamer, the man who in all 
probability would have seen visions most easily. 

This first word was spoken to Nathanael, whom Jesus 
described as being " an Israelite indeed, in whom is no 
guile." The very humour and playfulness of that word of 
Christ will be discovered if we realize that in effect He 
said, " An Israelite indeed, in whom is no Jacob " " An 



Angels 81 

Israelite indeed," that is, one realizing all that which was 
the Divine intention for Jacob ; and therefore thou shalt 
see Jacob's dream fulfilled ; " the angels of God ascending 
and descending upon the Son of Man." ' 

That is the reference to angels upon the portal of John's 
Gospel ; a statement made at the beginning of the ministry 
of Christ ; and in itself figurative, symbolic, suggestive, in- 
clusive and final, on the subject of angelic ministry in the 
new covenant and dispensation which He had come to create. 

Then moving chronologically through the ministry of 
Jesus, the next references are found in the Kingdom par- 
ables, 2 wherein He referred to angels as taking part with 
Him in His final administration of the government of this 
world, for the establishment of the Kingdom of God. He 
described their work as that of separating between the tares 
and the wheat ; severing between that which is good and 
bad when the great drag-net is brought to shore, having all 
kinds of fishes therein. The angels are to be His ministers, 
discriminating, dividing, administering, at the end of the age. 

Chronologically every other reference to angels was made 
after Caesarea Philippi, after the hour in which Peter had 
made his great confession, and in which the Lord had be- 
gun to speak of His coming passion and His coming sor- 
row. Then the references to angels became more numer- 
ous. Let us attempt to gather up the teaching of our Lord 
under the three heads already mentioned — the nature of the 
angels ; the character of the "angels ; and principally — for 
under this head we have more references than under any 
other — the ministry of the angels. 

As to the nature of angels, let it be at once recognized 
that the references are very few, and that they can only 
afford some gleams of light. Yet they afford light suffi- 
cient for our present need, and for an understanding of 
1 1 John i. 47, 51. « Matt. xiii. 39, 41, 49, 50. 



82 The Teaching of Christ 

their nature. No reference is of the nature of a definite 
and systematic declaration ; each is but incidental. 

The first is that recorded by Matthew, by Mark, and by 
Luke, when in answer to a Sadducean question as to the 
resurrection and marriage, our Lord made this statement : 

" In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in 
marriage, but are as angels in heaven." ' 

In that incidental statement we have perhaps more light 
than appears at first. We have our Lord's declaration that 
angel life is entirely different from human life ; in that it is 
not terrestrial, nor can be ; but that it is celestial, and must 
abide celestial. In other words He thus declared that in angel 
nature there is neither male nor female, and by that word He 
denied forever that fantastic and foolish idea that " the sons of 
God " in Genesis were angels ; and made it perfectly clear 
that in angel-life that inter-relationship, which we know in 
earthly life as marriage, is non-existent and impossible. 

The angels are direct creations of God; each individual 
one is immediately created by God ; and in that sense they 
are the " sons of God." That sweeps out all the ideas 
that bring angels at all into kinship with humanity. They 
are of a different order of being, of an entirely different na- 
ture, not to be thought of as we think of men and women 
to-day. Of course the main point of His teaching in this 
connection was that, in the life beyond, men and women 
will have come into the angel realm of life, and share in some 
sense their nature, but He separated the angels from the 
earth as to kinship. He showed that the angels are the 
ministers of God, touching the earth, visiting the earth, in- 
terested in the earth; but never of the earth. They are an 
entirely different order and race of beings ; and they are 
never procreated, but are always the direct creation of God 
Himself. There is no light upon their nature beyond that. 

1 Matt. xxii. 30. 



Angels 83 

The mystery is not explained, because it cannot be explained 
to men in this life. There are things of which we in this 
present limited life can never come to full comprehension, or 
know the meaning. This gleam of light does however clearly 
reveal that they are not terrestrial as man is ; but celestial, 
wholly of the spirit world. This does not mean to say that 
there is no material side to the being of an angel, for there 
may be a material which is not of the earth ; but it divides 
between the angels and humanity, and shows that the gulf 
separating is the gulf of an absolute difference in nature. 

Then in one gleam of light in the record of Luke we learn 
a second thing concerning the angels. As by the three ref- 
erences we have referred to, we have discovered they are 
not terrestrial ; in this statement we learn they are not 
mortal, but immortal ; " neither can they die." ■ 

In the letter to the Hebrews this teaching of Jesus is car- 
ried out by the writer in relation to the Lord Himself, when 
he declares that : 

" Verily not of angels doth He take hold, but He taketh 
hold of the seed of Abraham." 2 The reason for this was 
that by taking human nature He could die. Thus the 
second fact revealed in the teaching of our Lord about 
angels is that they cannot die. 

In an incidental reference, in the midst of one of the most 
remarkable things our Lord ever said concerning Himself, 
we have this final thought concerning their nature ; they are 
not omniscient, they do not know all things, they only 
know the things revealed to them : 

" Of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the 
angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only." 3 

Here is a distinct declaration that the angels are y limited in 
their knowledge, never to be thought of as infinite, but al- 
ways finite ; created beings, of some heavenly order and 
1 Luke xx. 36. 2 Heb. ii. 16. 3 Matt. xxiv. 36. 



84 The Teaching of Christ 

type, without dying, and limited in their knowledge, know- 
ing only the things revealed. 

The teaching of Jesus as to the character of the angels is 
revealed in the fact that He only used one adjective con- 
cerning them, and that only on two occasions. 

He spoke of them as the " holy angels." ' It may be that 
His use of the word " holy " on both these occasions was 
intended to distinguish between the angels to whom He was 
referring, and other angels that are unholy ; the fallen angels. 
But even if that be so, it does not detract from the positive 
value of the adjective that He used. He called them holy, 
using that word which means quite simply, awful ; and yet 
which always stands for the awfulness of sanctity, or separa- 
tion ; and which is always connected with the sanctity or sepa- 
ration of an absolute purity. It is interesting to go through 
the words of Jesus and see how often He used that word 
holy, and in what relationship. He used it of His own 
high ideals, when in the Sermon on the Mount He said : 
" Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast 
your pearls before the swine." He used it of the Temple 
by quotation from Daniel, when He described it as " the 
holy place." He used it perpetually, as we have seen, of 
the Spirit of God. He used it of God Himself, " Holy 
Father." He used it of the angels. 

These are only gleams of light, but through them I see an 
order of being; every individual member of the great order 
created by God ; belonging to the things celestial and hav- 
ing no natural contact with the things terrestrial ; not mortal 
but immortal ; not knowing all things, but learning, and re- 
ceiving, and knowing the things revealed ; sinless, absolutely 
pure, awful in their holiness, with the very holiness of God. 

We turn now to our Lord's teaching concerning the min- 
istry of angels. 

1 Mark viii. 38. Luke ix. 26. 



Angels 85 

The first word, as I have already said, is inclusive and 
comprehensive. We remember that the language is figura- 
tive, and yet let us ponder it. He said to Nathanael : " Ye 
shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending 
and descending upon the Son of Man." *J 

By that word He revealed the fact that He thought of 
angels as engaged in a perpetual ministry of communion be- 
tween this earth and the heaven that lies beyond. Every 
word is figurative ; " ascending and descending " is a figura- 
tive term, employed to convey great meanings to the mind 
of men who are necessarily limited by such thoughts as those 
of ascent and descent. Notice the suggestiveness of this. 
Angels ascending and descending ! The thought of our 
Lord was in harmony with the thought of the dream of the 
olden time, and was not that of angels as abiding in their 
own habitation in the celestial places ; but of them as com- 
mitted to a ministry of service among the sons of men ; and 
then ascending, and bearing up messages to the higher 
places ; not to tell God the things they see, for jnen live 
and move and have their being in God ; but to convey the 
story to other intelligences, and to make known to other 
worlds the facts happening here ; and then descending with 
answers to petitions they have borne away, to bring the min- 
istry of another and a distant world, and the things of a 
larger and a more infinite life, to touch and help and renew 
man in the processes of his probationary career. 

This word was the ratification of Jacob's dream, and in 
the august statement our Lord declared that His mission in the 
world was that of fulfilling the dream of Jacob, and making 
this ministry of angels no longer occasional, but perpetual. 

Is not that what the writer of the letter to the Hebrews 
meant when he wrote, " Are they not all ministering spirits, 
sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall in- 

1 John i. 51. 



86 The Teaching of Christ 

herit salvation ? " * Thus we learn from that first reference 
that angels are now occupied, under the government of God, 
in the service of humanity. 

The next fact we learn is from the next word in order, 
which declared that the angels are specially committed to the 
guardianship of children. If you are inclined to speak of it 
as poetry, I pray you read the words again. It was, on the 
part of Jesus, not a figure of speech merely. It was a 
solemn asseveration. He said distinctly, when speaking of 
the children, of the little ones, that their angels in heaven do 
always behold the face of the Father. He was suggesting 
to those who listened to Him the honour conferred upon 
the angels, in that they have right of access to the immediate 
presence of God, that their vision of God is clear and un- 
clouded, that they do always behold the face of God. And 
these angels guard the children. If such honoured beings 
are set apart by God to watch the children, then how sacred 
their wards must be : 

" See that ye despise not one of these little ones " ; 2 for their 
angels have perpetual access to the presence of God, they " do 
always behold the face of your Father which is in heaven." 

I know the age in which we live ; I know the spirit out- 
side the sanctuary, the scepticism, the criticism ; and that 
people will say, Do you really believe angels guard the chil- 
dren ? I certainly do ; for I do not believe we have seen 
all the facts of life when we have looked into each other's 
faces. I believe in the ministry of angels, and that for every 
bairn there is a guardian angel who always beholds the face 
of God. That is one of my profoundest convictions, be- 
cause He said so ; and I believe it in spite of all that scepti- 
cism may say to attempt to shake my conviction. 

The next word as to the present ministry of angels we 
find in that wonderful chapter in which Luke alone has 
1 Heb. i. 14. a Matt, xviii. 10. 



Angels 87 

given us the threefold parable of the lost things : the lost 
piece of silver, the lost sheep, and the lost son. In the 
midst of that unveiling of God's heart, our Lord declared 
that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God ; a 
profounder and deeper thing than telling us that the angels 
are filled with joy. " In the presence of the angels," in 
the observation of the angels, in the place where the angels 
are, there is joy. In all the highest courts of heaven, in 
the true centre of everything, in God Himself. The angels 
are mentioned because they become the voices of the heav- 
enly joy ; and as o'er the plains of Bethlehem they sang the 
song of the coming Redeemer, so forevermore they thunder 
forth in sweetest music the joy of God over bruised and 
broken men and women, weeping their way back to His 
heart and to His love. Their ministry, their present min- 
istry is that of the perpetual chorus, the offering of praise in 
the high places of the universe, whenever men turn home 
to God. Ah, what fools and blind we are ! We did not 
think much of it that some man recently found his way back 
out of slum or suburb, out of his desolation and misery and sin 
to God ; but when he came, with the sigh and the tear of ag- 
ony and repentance, heaven was filled with joy, and the angels 
voiced the joy of heaven. That is their perpetual ministry. 
We learn next from a word of Jesus recorded by Luke 
that angels become the guides home of the dying. When 
a man dies, he finds entrance upon another order of life. 
Dying ; what is it ? Leaving behind the chance of ever 
dying. It is a dropping of the robe of flesh, which alone 
can die, and going out into the new order of life. I can 
imagine the spirit of a man finding himself just across the 
border, in the presence of the new reality, full of mystery ; 
filled with the consciousness of loneliness, and of perplexity, 
knowing nothing of how to proceed. Jesus said that such 
a man was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. 



88 The Teaching of Christ 

" Abraham's bosom " was a Jewish phrase, used to de- 
scribe the very heart of Heaven, the chief place of joy in 
the life that lay beyond. And thither, He said, angels bore 
Lazarus ; they met him, conducted him, carried him. I 
think they still do it. I believe that when our loved ones 
have just passed where our voices can no longer reach, our 
eyes cheer, our hands minister ; angels welcome them and 
bear them to some one of the habitations of the blessed, and 
lead them out in the first pilgrimages of that great and won- 
drous life that lies beyond. 

The final thing He said about their present ministry is 
full of fire and force and flaming glory. He was in the 
garden. Peter had blundered by the use of his sword at the 
wrong place, and at the wrong time. Men were arresting 
Him, and He said to Peter : 

" Thinkest thou that I cannot beseech My Father, and 
He shall even now send Me more than twelve legions of 
angels ? " " 

It is a flame of glory, as full of mystery as it is possible 
to imagine. Twelve legions; twelve, a peculiar Hebrew 
word, that all His disciples would understand ; twelve tribes, 
twelve apostles, twelve, always twelve; legions, a peculiarly 
Roman word, six thousand footmen, in addition to cavalry. 

Angels, flaming presences of unspotted purity, might have 
delivered Him, for He 

" maketh His angels winds, 
And His ministers a flame of fire " ; a 



and for the purposes of God they can touch and deal with 
things terrestriaL The marvel of all marvels is that He 
simply drew the veil, and gave us to see something of the 
gleaming myriads of angels ready to do the behests of the 
King, and then chose to remain alone. And if you ask me, 

1 Matt. xxvi. 53. 2 Heb. i. 7. 



Angels 89 

Why ? there is but one answer, " He loved me, and gave 
Himself up for me." 

Then our Lord also described the future ministry of 
angels ; and here perhaps we are in graver difficulty ; and 
yet the words of Jesus are perhaps more circumstantial than 
in any other application. He declared that He will come 
again, that He will once again be focused for earthly ob- 
servation. He Who came will come, and His next coming 
will be in glory ; and the angels will be in attendance in the 
hour of His vindication. They who have been unseen 
ministers will be visible attendants upon His glory. 1 

He declared, moreover, that in that hour of judgment, of 
discriminating justice which the world so sorely needs, He 
will bring angels to aid Him; from the Kingdom they shall 
gather out the things that offend, that they may be destroyed, 
in order that all the things of brightness and glory and beauty 
may have their full realization. 

Thus the teaching of Christ directly affirmed the existence 
of angels, and gave some understanding of their nature, their 
character, and their ministry. That teaching was in direct 
opposition to the Sadducean influence which was powerful 
in His time. The high priest was a Sadducee. The domi- 
nant power was Sadducean ; and in Paul's great address, 
chronicled in the Acts of the Apostles, we find the definition 
of the Sadducee ; he was one who denied resurrection, and 
angel, and spirit. 2 In the midst of that Sadducean influence 
and atmosphere our Lord proclaimed, by all these references, 
His belief in the existence of the angels. 

A fuller study of the theme would show the relation of 
this teaching to the Hebrew past and the apostolic future. 
That of course does not come within the scope of these 
meditations. His first word about the angels spoken to 
Nathanael was linked to the teaching of Jacob's dream ; and 
His last word about the angels, spoken in the garden con- 

1 Matt. xvi. 27.] 2 Acts xxiii. 8. 



90 The Teaching of Christ 

cerning the twelve legions, was linked to the teaching of that 
wonderful vision in Kings, when Elisha prayed that the eyes 
of his servant might be opened ; and when they were opened, 

" Lo, to faith's enlightened sight, 

All the mountains flamed with light." 

Thus our Lord accepted the Hebrew view of the angels; 
and in doing so, He sealed it as true. When we turn from 
these Gospels to the apostolic writings, the same truths are 
maintained. Angels are still referred to as the armies of 
heaven. It is still declared that they minister to the saints. 
We see them divided into ranks and orders, and yet united 
in service ; and the worship of angels is emphatically con- 
demned, forbidden. 

According to the teaching of Jesus, when we take our 
way from the sanctuary and into the life of every day, we 
receive ministries other than material, ministries other than 
the essentially spiritual ; not only fellowship with the Fa- 
ther and with the Son and with the Spirit ; but, to aid us in 
a thousand ways of which we do not dream, the touch of 
other creations upon our lives, whispers in language we 
cannot catch so as to repeat it, which has its influence upon 
us in the hour of danger. I believe in the ministry of angels 
because our Lord has taught me so to do. 

" They come, God's messengers of love, 
They come from realms of peace above, 
From homes of never-fading light, 
From heavenly mansions ever bright. 

" They come to watch around us here, 
To soothe our sorrow, calm our fear : 
They come to speed us on our way ; 
God willeth them with us to stay. 

'« But chiefly at its journey's end 
'Tis theirs the spirit to befriend, 
And whisper to the faithful heart, 
* O Christian soul, in peace depart.' " 



V. SATAN AND DEMONS 



" Get thee hence, Satan." — Matthew iv. 10. 

" Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." — vi. 13 

" If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much 
more shall they call them of his household ! " — x. 25. ttm 

" If Satan casteth out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then 
shall his kingdom stand ? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom 
do your sons cast them out ? " — xii. 26, 27. 

" But the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passeth through 
waterless places, seeking rest, and findeth it not. Then he saith, I will 
return into my house whence I came out ; and when he is come, he find- 
eth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with 
himself seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in 
and dwell there : and the last state of that man becometh worse than the 
first." — xii. 43-45. 

" When any one heareth the word of the Kingdom, and understandeth 
it not, then cometh the evil one, and snatcheth away that which hath been 
sown in his heart." 

" He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man ; and the field is the 
world ; and thef good seed, these are the sons of the Kingdom ; and the 
tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy that sowed them is 
the devil." — xiii. ig, 37~3g. 

" Get thee behind Me, Satan : thou art a stumbling-block unto Me : for 
thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men." — xvi. 23. 

" Depart from Me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for 
the devil and his angels." — xxv. 41. 



" These are they by the wayside, where the word is sown ; and when 
they have heard, straightway cometh Satan, and taketh away the word 
which hath been sown in them." — Mark iv. ij. 

" Come forth, thou unclean spirit, out of the man." — v. 8. 

"Jesus . . . rebuked the unclean spirit, saying unto him, Thou 
dumb and deaf spirit, I command thee, come out of him, and enter no 
more into him." — ix. 25. 



"And those by the wayside are they that have heard; then cometh 
the devil, and taketh away the word from their heart, that they may not 
believe and be saved." — Luke viii. 12. 



" I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given 
you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power 
of the enemy : and nothing shall in anywise hurt you. Howbeit in this 
rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you ; but rejoice that your 
names are written in heaven." — x. 18-20. 

" The unclean spirit when he is gone out of the man, 'passeth through 
waterless places, seeking rest ; and finding none, he saith, I will turn back 
unto my house whence I came out. And when he is come, he findeth it 
swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other 
spirits more evil than himself ; and they enter in and dwell there ; and the 
last state of that man becometh worse than the first." — xi. 24-26. 

u Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan 
had bound, lo, these eighteen years, to have been loosed from this bond 
on the day of the Sabbath ? " — xiii. 16. 

" Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you 
as wheat." — xxii.31. 



" Did not I choose you the twelve, and one of you is a devil ? " — 
John vi. jo. 

" Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your 
will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the 
truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speak 
eth of his own : for he is a liar, and the father thereof." — viii. 44. 

" Now is the judgment of this world ; now shall the prince of this 
world be cast out." — xii.31. 

" I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world 
cometh : and he hath nothing in Me." — xiv. 30. 

" Of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged." — 
xvi. 11. 



SATAN AND DEMONS 

In the study of the religions of the world, there is perhaps 
nothing more startling than the discovery of the universal 
belief in the existence of a dark under-world of spiritual be- 
ings in antagonism to all that is highest in man, and to all 
that makes for his happiness or holiness. Every form of re- 
ligion, from the fetish worship which is considered the lowest, 
to the highest conceptions, includes belief in the existence 
of such forces. The differences between religions in this 
respect are differences in the attitude of the mind to these 
spiritual antagonisms ; all believing in their existence. 

New Testament writers recognized these forces, and gave 
very definite teaching concerning their opposition to man, his 
conflict with them, and the way of victory over them. This 
belief in the existence of such an under-world of spiritual be- 
ings in antagonism to man is so closely interwoven with the 
texture of these Gospel stories that the most casual description 
of their contents must include some reference to them. In- 
deed, it is a conspicuous fact that the Incarnation resulted, 
not only in the manifestation of God, and the interpretation 
of man ; but also in the unmasking of Satan. Whereas in the 
Word incarnate we have in very deed seen the Father ; and 
whereas in that selfsame Man of Nazareth we have had an 
explanation of the mystery of our own being ; it is equally 
true that as the result of His presence and His teaching the 
apostle was able to write long ago concerning the enemy of 
the race, " We are not ignorant of his devices." 

95 



96 The Teaching of Christ 

We turn then, with reverent interest, to the teaching of our 
Lord on this great and confessedly mysterious subject ; and 
in doing so two matters impress us, to which reference must 
be made by way of introduction ; first that here again we have 
no systematic teaching, no attempt to satisfy curiosity, or to 
supply knowledge simply in order to make men " wise and 
understanding," to use our Lord's descriptive words of the 
men from whom the ways of God are forever hidden. But 
on the other hand as we read these records, intermixed with 
the teaching of the Master, we find enough references to this 
under-world of evil, to yield a mass of material ; and to afford 
very clear conceptions to those who, convinced of the un- 
erring wisdom of the Teacher, listen with the simplicity of 
babes, in order to know and do the will of the Father. 

It is impossible to quote here all the references to the sub- 
ject in the Gospels. A tabulation of results must suffice, 
referring to some outstanding and representative words of 
the Lord, under two headings : first His teaching concern- 
ing Satan ; and secondly His teaching concerning those 
whom He described as his angels. 

First, then, the teaching of our Lord concerning Satan. 
The references of Jesus to Satan are too many and too ex- 
plicit to need any argument to prove His belief in the exist- 
ence of a spiritual personality of great subtlety, and of great 
power, who is actively engaged in evil operations producing 
evil results. No man can deny the personality of Satan with- 
out either denying the accuracy of these records, or asserting 
that Christ was a child of His own age, influenced merely 
by the opinions of that age, and mistaken. To those who 
accept Him as the final, infallible, authoritative Teacher, and 
who believe in the accuracy of the records, no argument is 
needed as to the personality, or as to the fact of the activity 
of such a personality in the universe. 

Our business is to endeavour to see this being, as Jesus 



Satan and Demons 97 

saw him, and to understand him in the light of His 
teaching. In doing this we shall notice first the names by 
which He called him ; and secondly the terms by which 
He defined him. Here again, we have no set discourse on 
the person of Satan ; but in the midst of His teaching, our 
Lord referred to him, named him, and used certain titles 
for him which are definitions; and from these names and 
these titles we gather the teaching of our Lord concerning 
Satan. 

First, then, the names by which our Lord referred to this 
personality. There were three, and three only ; and they 
were all taken from the Hebrew economy. Each one of 
them is to be found in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. 
It is important that we should understand that our Lord 
came to exercise His ministry as the Hebrew Messiah ; and 
that by all His references to their theology, and to their great 
religious conceptions, He set the seal of His authority upon 
them, in so far as they had gone. Each name by which 
He referred to this adversary was a name perfectly familiar 
to the ears of His hearers, perfectly well known in the 
Hebrew economy. The three names are, Satan, the Devil, 
and Beelzebub. 

The word " Satan " was in its first use a title rather than 
a name ; but in the process of the history of Hebrew the- 
ology it had become a definite name attached to one person. 
The simple meaning of the word is adversary ; and first of 
all, adversary in a legal sense ; so that in the Old Testa- 
ment the word is used, not always of a spiritual enemy, 
and not always of an evil enemy. Job used the word of 
God Himself, when he described Him as his Adversary; 
He was his Adversary at law, the One Who was against 
him. Whether that was a mistake on the part of Job is 
not now to be discussed. As we take our way through the 
writings of the Hebrew people, we find that gradually the 



98 The Teaching of Christ 

name was retained for this one personality, of whom there 
seems to have been no very definite conception, and no 
very clear teaching ; save that he was a spiritual being, of 
vast wisdom and tremendous power, who was at war with 
the purpose of God. Our Lord took that name, and used 
it in His references to this personality. 

He also used the name which we translate as " the devil," 
the Greek word diabolos, which means the traducer, the 
false accuser ; and necessarily in that word there was al- 
ways the thought and suggestion of evil which was not at 
first associated with the other word, adversary. Upon two 
occasions only, our Lord made use of the word by which 
this being was designated by the Pharisees, Beelzebub. It 
is a terrible word, Baal, zebub j Baal, the master, zebub, of 
the flies ; that is, the dung-god, the genius presiding over 
corruption. 

To pass in review the occasions upon which our Lord 
made use of the name Satan ; in the hour of His tempta- 
tion it is recordedfthat He said to the tempter, " Get thee 
hence, Satan." l In His conflict with the Pharisees, when 
they declared that He was cooperating with Satan in the 
working of His miracles of exorcism, Christ said, " If Satan 
casteth out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then 
shall his kingdom stand ? " 2 In His explanation of the 
parable of the sower to His own disciples, He spoke of the 
enemy, saying, "Straightway cometh Satan, and taketh 
away the word which hath been sown in them." 3 In His 
address to Peter at Caesarea Philippi, at that parting of the 
ways in His ministry, He spoke those terrifically solemn 
words, addressing them to the man, and yet through the 
man speaking to the personality whom He recognized be- 
hind the disciple, " Get thee behind Me, Satan : thou art a 
stumbling-block unto Me : for thou mindest not the things 
1 Matt. iv. 10. J Ibid., xii. 26. 3 Mark iv. 15. 



Satan and Demons 99 

of God, but the things of men." ' In His word to the 
seventy returned from their victorious mission, He said, " I 
beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven." 2 Once, 
when describing a woman who for long years had been in 
infirmity He said, u Ought not this woman, being a daugh- 
ter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound, lo, these eighteen 
years, to have been loosed from this bond on the day of the 
Sabbath ? " 3 And at last, amid the shadows of the Pass- 
over feast and discourses He uttered that illuminative word, 
u Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat : 
but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not." 4 

That is merely a cursory grouping of the occasions upon 
which it is recorded that our Lord used the word itself. 
Upon each one of them we might dwell, for all contribute 
something of light to our understanding of the Lord's con- 
ception of the power of Satan ; the first recognizing the 
fact that he is the instrument for tempting the soul of a 
man ; the second realizing the unity of Satan's kingdom in 
its attack upon the purposes of God ; the third realizing 
his constant activity with regard to the proclamation of the 
Divine revelation, that wherever possible he it is who steals 
away from the heart of a man the Word of God ; the fourth 
revealing the whole inspiration of Satanic method in the 
word to Peter, "Thou mindest not the things of God, but 
the things of men " ; the fifth, putting the whole story of 
Satan into one great flash of light : " I beheld," and the 
word beheld is a very striking one ; it does not refer to the 
casual sight of something that happened ; it is rather a word 
indicating constant watchfulness, and reveals the Lord's at- 
titude towards Satan. Suggestively, though not in detailed 
unveiling, that is the history of the genesis and consumma- 
tion of evil in the universe of God ; that was the primal 

1 Matt. xvi. 23. 3 Ibid., xiii. 16. 

1 Luke x. 18. * Ibid., xxii. 31. 



loo The Teaching of Christ 

fall, when according to Milton, Lucifer, son of the morn- 
ing, fell as the result of his rebellion against the government 
of God. Christ said, " I beheld Satan fallen," I know his 
history, I know his present position, I know the ultimate 
issue of all his effort, " I beheld Satan," not enthroned, not 
winning his victory ; not triumphing, but fallen as light- 
ning from heaven. In the sixth reference there is one 
simple incidental revelation of the strange power of Satan 
over physical conditions ; Satan had bound this daughter of 
Abraham through the long years ; and in the seventh there 
is a wonderfully illuminative revelation of the relation of 
Satan to the economy of God, " Satan hath obtained you by 
asking, that he may sift you as wheat : but I made suppli- 
cation for thee, that thy faith fail not." Satan is seen as 
compelled to the ministry of sifting the men of faith ; but 
over against the power of his sifting there is set the advo- 
cacy, the intercession of the Son of God Himself; and He 
spoke in perfect confidence that though he sift, no grain of 
wheat can be lost, the chaff alone goes. The prevailing 
intercession of the Saviour is a mightier force than the sift- 
ing of the foe. 

Of course this is only to touch upon some of the great 
values of the texts. The outstanding references to Satan 
are first that at Caesarea Philippi, in which our Lord said, 
" Thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of 
men," revealing the very inspiration of evil; secondly that 
in which He said, " I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from 
heaven," and thus declared His own attitude towards the 
enemy ; and finally that in which He said, " Satan hath 
obtained you by asking, that he may sift you as wheat." 

There are four recorded occasions on which He spoke 
of this being as " the Devil." In His explanation of the 
parable of the sower as recorded by Luke, He said, " Then 
cometh the devil, and taketh away the word from their 



Satan and Demons 101 

heart." ' When He repeated the parable, according to Mat- 
thew, He changed the word, and spoke of " the evil one." 
In Matthew's account of the explanation of the parable of 
the tares, or the darnel, He said, " The enemy that sowed 
them is the devil" 2 In His condemnation of His critics, as 
recorded by John, He used the name : u Ye are of your 
father the devil" ; 3 and in that connection, remember what 
we attempted to insist upon when considering His teaching 
concerning God, that the word " father " does not essentially 
mean progenitor. 

The real thought of " father " has nothing in it that sug- 
gests the origin of being ; it is the word that suggests care, 
watchfulness, attention ; and the terrible thought of this pas- 
sage therefore is that these men were under the care, the 
watchfulness, the attention of the devil j and if those sacred 
words, care and watchfulness and attention, seem out of 
place in that connection, I use them deliberately, for the reve- 
lation of Scripture is that of the appalling persistence with 
which the devil will attempt to encompass the ruin of a soul, 
and the wreckage of society. In the foretelling of the doom 
of Satan and his angels, He spoke of an " age-abiding fire 
prepared for the devil and his angels." 4 Once He used the 
word of a man, when He definitely and distinctly and em- 
phatically declared of Judas, " One of you is a devil" 5 It 
is the only occasion when He said " a devil." In every 
other case He employed the definite article ; but He spoke 
of Judas as being " a devil," a false accuser, a traducer. 

In connection with His conflict with the Pharisees, He 
twice used the word Beelzebub, quoting it to His disciples 
when He said, " If they have called the master of the house 
Beelzebub^ how much more shall "they call them of his 
household ? " 6 and quoting it again when speaking to the 

1 Luke viii. 12. 3 John viii. 44. 6 John vi. 70. 

3 Matt. xiii. 39. 4 Matt. xxv. 41. 6 Matt. x. 25. 



102 The Teaching of Christ 

Pharisees, He said, " If I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by 
whom do your sons cast them out ? " ' 

Let us now turn to the defining terms of which He made 
use. These are found in the course of His teaching, and 
in each case must be interpreted by the context. I group 
them by the suggestiveness of the context. He used two 
terms to define Satan in relation to the Kingdom of God ; 
two to define him in his relation to human character ; and 
one to define him in his relation to Himself. 

When dealing with the relation of Satan to the Kingdom 
of God, and its establishment in the world, He used the 
terms : " the evil one" and " the enemy." " The evil one " 
is sometimes rendered " the evil." In the Revised Version 
the final petition in the Lord's Prayer is made to read, " Lead 
us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one " ; 2 
the word one is italicized, signifying that it does u not appear 
to be necessarily involved in the Greek" (Reviser's Preface). 
We still recite it, " Deliver us from evil," and I prefer that 
form of recitation because I think the petition includes the 
evil one, and all the results of his activity. But the impli- 
cation is that we are delivered from the evils which result 
from the work of " the evil one" 

When Jesus was explaining the parables of the sower and 
the tares He said respectively, "Then cometh the evil one, 
and snatcheth away that which hath been sown " ; 3 and, 
" the tares are the sons of the evil one" 4 

Thus the term, " the evil one," suggests that Satan is the 
origin, the fountainhead of evil ; and our Lord employed 
it when dealing with His relation to the Kingdom. The 
supreme passion of the heart of the Master was that of the 
establishment of God's Kingdom. Wherever He looked 
He saw the multitudes without a shepherd, and was moved 

1 Matt. xii. 27. 3 Ibid., xiii. 19. 

2 Ibid. % vi. 13. * Ibid., xiii. 38. 



Satan and Demons 103 

with compassion. He saw wounds and weariness and want 
and woe, and His heart was filled with pain ; and through 
the chaos He saw the cosmos ; through the disorder, the 
order of the Kingdom ; and His whole work was directed 
towards the establishment of the Kingdom of God in the 
world. On the other hand the evil one was actively en- 
gaged in attempting to prevent that consummation ; sowing 
darnel where the Master sowed the wheat. 

" The enemy " means, quite literally, the hater, and there- 
fore the one hostile to every purpose of beneficence and of 
love. In explanation of the parable of the tares, the Lord 
said, " the enemy that sowed them is the devil " ; and in His 
address to the Seventy, " I have given you authority over 
all the power of the enemy." 

Thus when our Lord was speaking of His Kingdom, 
teaching men to pray for its establishment, declaring the 
method by which the Kingdom purpose would be carried 
through a particular dispensation, He referred to Satan as 
" the evil one" the origin of the things that hindered ; and 
" the enemy" the one who opposes the progress of the King. 

The terms of which He made use, when showing the re- 
lation of the devil to human character, are found in the 
Gospel of John. Speaking to men who were opposed to 
Him, who were criticizing Him, who were willfully blinding 
their eyes to His work and His word, He told them they 
were of their father the devil, and used two terms to de- 
scribe him, as He said " He was a murderer" quite literally, 
a manslayer ; and " he is a liar" quite literally, a teller of 
the untruth, the falsifier of that which is true. Thus in the 
matter of the relation of this personality to human character 
two terrible facts are revealed ; his aim is the destruction 
of man, and his method is the falsifying of truth. 

Our Lord made use of one term only in describing the re- 
lation of this person to Himself: u the prince of this world." 



104 The Teaching of Christ 

It is to be carefully noted that the Greek word here trans- 
lated prince is archon, and not archegos. Archon means simply 
a ruler, and was the common word used of the rulers of the 
people. Archegos is never used in the New Testament of 
any person save the Lord Himself. It means the file-leader, 
the first in order, the true and ultimate Prince. That word 
is retained for Christ Himself, not by collusion between 
the writers, but by the overruling of the Holy Spirit. 

When Jesus spoke of Satan as the prince, the ruler of this 
world, it was always in connection with something He was 
saying of Himself. There are only three recorded occasions, 
and they all were when the shadow of the Cross was rest- 
ing upon Him ; when He was coming very near to what 
Russell Lowell so wonderfully described as the 

" . . . death grapple in the darkness 
'Twixt old systems and the Word : " 

when, — to use the language of man, and the measurements 
of time, — He was coming to the very hour of His conflict, 
that final conflict between the Prince of life and the prince 
of evil. Then He used the term, " the prince of this world" 
" Now shall the prince of this world be cast out." * 
" The prince of the world cometh : and he hath nothing in 
Me." 2 

" The prince of this world hath been judged." 3 
There are expositors who suggest that our Lord there used 
a designation which has reference to the primal creation of 
Satan, and I believe that to be true. When we know the 
whole story, we shall probably find that the first habitation 
of Satan was this world ; that the prince of the creation 
described in the first verse of Genesis was Lucifer, this 
very Satan ; and that he fell in that relation. By the use of 
this term our Lord was going back to that earliest fact. 
1 John xii. 31. *fi>id.,xiv. 30. 8 Ibid., xvi. II. 



Satan and Demons 105 

Satan was " the prince of this world," the one whose realm 
in the Divine economy was this world ; and that partially 
explains for me his attack upon the parents of the race, 
whose mission in the Divine economy was connected with 
restoration. 

It is sufficient however for us to observe this description 
of him, in his relation to the Lord Himself. John declared 
that " the whole world lieth in the evil one." This is a 
picture of Satan's mastery of men, who have become 
materialized. 

We must not however leave that descriptive term in the 
shadows that reveal the power of Satan ; but rather in the 
light that reveals the mastery of our Lord. " Now shall the 
prince of this world be cast out " ; " He hath nothing in 
Me " ; and, " the prince of this world hath been judged." 
The Lord always used the term in order to show that the 
sceptre is taken from the grasp of Satan, and held in His 
own right hand. 

Beyond this recognition and revelation of one ruling per- 
sonality of evil, there is to be found in the teaching of the 
Lord a constant recognition of multitudes of evil beings, all 
acting under the direction of this one ruler. We shall 
examine that teaching by considering the common name 
used for these beings, and two defining terms. 

The common name is " demons." Endless confusion has 
been caused in our English versions, both Authorized and 
Revised, by failure to distinguish in translation between devils 
and demons. In the Authorized Version the distinction is 
not made at all ; and the Revisers perpetuated the blunder, 
in spite of the strong protest of the American Committee. 
In the American Revision the distinction is carefully and 
consistently made. Rotherham makes the distinction, and 
so also does Weymouth. If we lose sight of this distinc- 
tion we cannot understand the teaching of our Lord. 



106 The Teaching of Christ 

The word demon is but the Anglicized form of the Greek 
word. Its derivation is very uncertain. Perhaps it comes 
from a root meaning to distribute ; and if so, the idea has 
come from the Greek conception of the demon as being a 
tutelary deity, that is, one who, being intermediate between 
the sons of men and the final gods, distributed the gifts of 
the gods to men. Perhaps it comes from a root meaning 
wise, or knowing, and Socrates strongly held that to be the 
meaning of the word, and that the demons were wise ones, 
or knowing ones. If we try to find out what the word sug- 
gests, not by its root meaning, but by its use in classical 
Greek, we are still in the presence of great difficulty ; and 
yet such an attempt will lead us to the light which I think is 
to be found in the New Testament. 

Hesiod distinctly declared that the demons were the spirits 
of the men of the golden age, who had become mediators 
between the gods and the sons of men. Homer spoke of 
the demons almost invariably in a bad sense. 

Hesiod's references to demons suggested that their in- 
fluence on human life was entirely beneficent. Homer 
sometimes admits that also, but the prevailing use of the 
word in his writings suggests that their influence was evil. 

In the writings of Empedocles we find that he thought of 
the influence of the demon as sometimes good and some- 
times bad. 

Christian writers, both those of the New Testament and 
the great fathers of the Church, denied the intermediation of 
spirits or angels between men and God. The great Christian 
conception was that every man had right of access to God, 
and needed no such mediation. This explains Paul's strong 
protest against voluntary humility, and worshipping of angels. 
Christian teachers looked upon demons as wholly bad. 

In the New Testament the word demons is always used 
in an evil sense by Christian writers and speakers j and 



Satan and Demons 107 

whereas the Greek idea, according to Hesiod, was that 
demons were the spirits of the men of the Golden Age, the 
New Testament teaches that they are angelic spirits who have 
lost their first estate, and fallen from their first habitation. 

May not these myths and legends of a Golden Age have 
this element of truth, that they refer to that age of the earth 
before the catastrophe, when angels were the inhabitants \ 
and because they kept not their first estate, were cast down 
from their proper habitation. We may find very much of 
light in what we call paganism, in proportion as we under- 
stand that God has never wholly abandoned man to dark- 
ness in the midst of probationary life. 

A reference to dispossession is the only kind recorded from 
the lips of our Lord respecting demons. There are two ex- 
ceptions : first when He quoted the opinion of the multitude 
concerning John, " He hath a demon " ; and secondly the 
declaration He made concerning Himself, " I have not a de- 
mon." These are the only exceptions to the rule laid down, 
that whenever He spoke of demons it was in connection with 
exorcism. The only relation He had with this under-world of 
evil beings was that of conflict with them, freeing men from 
their power, and casting out those that possessed humanity. 

There are two defining terms of which He made use in 
connection with demons. He called them spirits. In de- 
scribing the condition of a man from whom they were cast 
out, He said " the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the 
man, passeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and 
finding it not." ' In addressing them He said, " Come forth, 
thou unclean spirit " / " Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I com- 
mand thee, come out of him." In speaking of the rejoicing 
of the Seventy, He said, " In this rejoice not ; that the 
spirits are subject unto you." In that word there is a 
revelation of the nature of these fallen ones. 

1 Matt. xii. 43-45. 



lo8 The Teaching of Christ 

In the last mention He made of them, in the great proph- 
ecy of His ultimate victory, as recorded by Matthew, He 
called them angels, messengers ; and revealed the fact that 
they were under the authority of Satan in the words " age- 
abiding fire, reserved for the devil and his angels." ' 

This teaching reveals our enemies in the spiritual world, 
as it sets before us the fact of one personality, the archon, 
the ruler, who is prince of this world ; and reveals to us 
multitudes of spiritual beings under his control, following his 
command, cooperating with him in a persistent fight against 
the Kingdom of God, against righteousness, and holiness, and 
love. It is this unveiling which most evidently was in the 
mind of the apostle when he said, " Our wrestling is not 
against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against 
the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against 
the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." 2 

But this teaching reveals something more, and it is the 
something more which comes to the heart as a message of 
hope and of courage. If there were nothing but this un- 
veiling of these hosts of wickedness, how we should be filled 
with fear. But the teaching reveals the Master as perfectly 
knowing them, persistently opposing them, and constantly 
triumphing over them. In the days of His flesh, after that 
hour of supreme temptation as a man in the wilderness, we 
never find our Lord entering into any discussion with evil 
spirits, but always addressing them in terms of perfect 
mastery and perfect command ; triumphing over them 
through all the pathway of His teaching, until at last He 
triumphed over them in His Cross, putting them off from 
Him, making a show of them openly in the universe of God. 

Therefore we fight under a Master Who has perfectly 
won the victory, and under Whose control we also may be 
more than conquerors. 

1 Matt. xxv. 41. 2 Eph. vi. 12. 



VI. MAN 



" It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word 

that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 

" Again it is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." 

" It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only 

shalt thou serve." — Matthew iv. 4, 7, 10. 

" The lamp of the body is the eye : if therefore thine eye be single, thy 
whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body 
shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, 
how great is the darkness ! No man can serve two masters : for either he 
will hate the one, and love the other ; or else he will hold to one, and 
despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." — vi. 22-24. 

" If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, 
how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to~ 
them that ask Him ? " — vii. 11. 

' " And be not afraid of them which kill the body, but are not able to kill 
the soul : but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body 
in hell."— at. 28. 

" Not that which entereth [into the mouth defileth the man ; but that 
which proceedeth out of the mouth, this defileth the man. . . . Per- 
ceive ye not, that whatsoever goeth into the mouth passeth into the belly, 
and is cast out into the draught ? But the things which proceed out of the 
mouth come forth out of the heart ; and they defile the man. For out of 
the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, 
false witness, railings : these are the things which defile the man : but to 
eat with unwashen hands defileth not the man." — xv. 11, 17-20. 

" For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, 
and forfeit his life ? or what shall a man give in exchange for his life ? " 
— xvi. 26. 

" Verily I say unto you, Except ye turn, and become as little children, 
ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of heaven." — xviii. 3. 

" I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of 
Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." — xxii. 32. 

" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment. 
And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 
On these two commandments hangeth the whole law, and the prophets." 
— xxii. 37-40. 



" Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born anew, he cannot 
see the Kingdom of God. . . . Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except 
a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom 
of God." — John Hi. j, 3. 

' "'No man can come to Me, except the Father which sent Me draw 
him : and I will raise him up in the last day. It is written in the prophets, 
And they shall all be taught of God. Every one that hath heard from the 
Father, and hath learned, cometh unto Me. . . . And He said, For 
this cause have I said unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it 
be given unto him of the Father." — vi. 44, 43, 63. 



VI 

MAN 

"The Word became flesh," ' to declare the Father and 
to manifest man. These are John's own words. The 
prologue to his Gospel concludes with this statement : " No 
man hath seen God at any time ; the only-begotten Son, 
which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared 
Him." 2 The introduction to his first epistle affirms that 
" the Life was manifested" 3 in that which the disciples saw 
with their eyes, beheld, and which their hands handled. 
Thus in the one Person, we hear the full and final declara- 
tion of God ; and see the manifestation of man, according 
to the will of God. 

By His persistent use of the title, " Son of Man," for 
Himself, our Lord marked His identification with humanity, 
and suggested the truth that the final understanding of hu- 
man nature must result from a knowledge of Himself. In 
considering His teaching about God, we declared that the 
final teaching is not to be found in His words, but in Him- 
self as the Word. So here, also, His final teaching about 
man is not to be found in the words, but in Himself, as 
the Word made flesh. We sing with perfect accuracy, 

" Would we view God's brightest glory, 
We must look in Jesu's face." 

We may sing with equal accuracy, 

" Would we know man's highest glory, 
We must look in Jesu's face." 

1 John i. 14. 2 Ibid., i. 18. 3 1 John i. 2. 

n 3 



1 14 The Teaching of Christ 

' Turning now to the actual words of the Master concern- 
ing man, we at once recognize that there is a sense in which 
everything He said has a bearing on our subject, because 
His mission in the world as the Sent of the Father had to 
do with man primarily, and fundamentally ; though its ulti- 
mate meaning could not be measured. The words of Jesus 
then, now under consideration, are only those which reveal 
His conception of human nature, and these fall into two 
groups : first, those which reveal man ideally, or essentially, 
that is, according to a Divine purpose ; and secondly, those 
revealing man actually or experimentally, that is, as Jesus 
found him. The words of Jesus which reveal His view of 
the 'essential facts of human nature are taken from the 
Gospel of Matthew, and the references in the other Gospels 
are only indicated in passing. These passages follow each 
other in consecutive and chronological order, and throw light 
upon man in five matters : first, his relation to God ; 
secondly, the unity of his being 5 thirdly, the inter-relation- 
ship of the physical and the spiritual ; fourthly, the continuity 
of personality beyond that which we describe as death ; and 
finally, the perfect law of probationary life. 

His teaching as to the relation of man to God is revealed 
most remarkably in the story of the temptation. The 
supreme revelation of man in that story is not to be found in 
anything Jesus said, but rather in the Man Himself. We 
constantly read the story giving our attention to its first and 
preeminent value, that namely of its revelation of tempta- 
tion, and of the secret of victory over it. While that is 
perfectly natural, and accurate, it is true also that through 
the mists and the darkness of the experience of temptation, 
forgetting for the moment as far as possible the assault upon 
the soul of the man, we have a revelation of the essential 
facts concerning human nature. There are ways in which 
man is seen more clearly in that wilderness experience than 



Man 115 

on any other page in the New Testament. There, while 
He was under the assault of the foe, the essential truth con- 
cerning man was revealed. The first temptation was 
directed against the physical life : " Command that these 
stones become bread." ' The second temptation was directed 
against the spiritual life : " Cast thyself down : for it is writ- 
ten, He shall give His angels charge concerning thee." a 
The last temptation was directed, not against the instrument 
in itself, but against the vocation : " All these " — the king- 
doms of the world — " will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down 
and worship me." 3 There is man, physical, spiritual ; the 
supreme glory and meaning of his existence being the fact 
that he is created for a purpose. 

Looking then upon that remarkable unveiling of truth 
concerning humanity, the words that fell from the lips of 
this Man, as He answered temptation, constitute a clear 
revelation of His conception of the relation of man to God 
within the Divine purpose and economy. The first word 
" Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that 
proceedeth out of the mouth of God," 4 reveals the true 
sustenance of human life. The second word " Thou shalt 
not tempt the Lord thy God," 5 while a negative one, re- 
veals positively the true principle of human life. The final 
word, u Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him 
only shalt thou serve," 6 reveals the true object of human life. 

The word as to the sustenance of life was spoken in an- 
swer to the temptation against the physical. The suggestion 
of evil is that all a man needs for the sustenance of his life 
is bread j that a man is material only ; that if there be phys- 
ical hunger unmet and unsatisfied, the man will perish. The 
answer of the perfect man is that in these matters also the 
spiritual is supreme. If, in obedience to the Word of God, 

1 Matt. iv. 3. 3 Ibid., iv. 9. 6 Ibid., iv. 7. , 

1 Ibid., iv. 6. 4 Ibid., iv. 4. 6 Ibid., iv. 10. 



li6 The Teaching of Christ 

the material must suffer hunger, then the true sustenance of 
life is that of the spiritual by obedience to the word or will 
of God. What a revolution would be wrought in our lives 
if we once grasped that tremendous conception of our hu- 
manity ; that a man is to live by the Word of God, obey the 
Word of God, conform his life to the Divine purpose, rec- 
ognize that in essence he is not dust but spirit ; and that 
the supreme fact in life is the spiritual. 

In the second word " Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy 
God," we have a revelation of the true principle of human 
life. It is that of such perfect confidence in God as declines 
to make experiments to see whether He will take care of a 
man or not. The temptation, which appeared to be an ap- 
peal to the highest instinct of trust, was really an appeal to 
doubt, as it suggested that He should prove His faith by an 
unwarranted, unordained experiment. The answer of 
Christ in effect was, The quiet calm of My confidence in 
God is such that I have no need to make an experiment to 
prove the thing I know to be true. That is the master- 
principle of life ; the continuous and active relationship of 
confidence in God which enables a man to abide quietly in 
the place of the Divine appointment. 

The final word, " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, 
and Him only shalt thou serve," is so wonderful that if 
there could be full exposition of it, it would be seen to flame 
with glory, and flash with splendour, making the soul burn 
with all high enthusiasm, and capturing the imagination of 
young and old alike. It is a description of the true fulfill- 
ment of the meaning of every human life. As the first 
speaks of the immediate and central relation ; and the second 
speaks of the continuous and active relation ; this describes 
the ultimate and glorious relation of every human life to 
God : " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him 
only shalt thou serve." This does not merely mean, — and 



Man 117 

these negative expositions seem sometimes out of place, and 
yet perhaps are important, — that on the first day of the 
week we are to assemble together, and sing His praise, and 
bow before Him in prayer ; but rather that the whole life 
shall become worship, and the whole life shall be service. 
The whole life is worship only when every power God 
created is, at its fullest and best, open to Him 5 and pouring 
itself out in service to His name. Flowers worship God in 
being what He meant them to be, in the unfolding of their 
possibilities of life ; in all the splendour and delicate perfec- 
tion of their being they utter forth His praise, and serve Him 
by ministering to the sense of beauty which He has placed 
within the heart of humanity. How then is man to worship 
God and serve Him ? By the full realization of life, by the 
discovery of all the powers of the being as He has placed 
them within man's personality ; and by the development of 
them through processes of training and exercise, with the 
will always set in the direction of the Divine glory. When 
this is done, what beauty and what glory result ! The song 
that is in us will find expression ; the vision that we have 
seen will be reproduced upon the canvas ; the music that we 
hear will be repeated that other men may hear it ; the word 
that burns like fire will be uttered that other men may be 
ennobled by it. I worship when I preach. You worship 
when you paint, when you follow your profession, and in it 
abide with God. It is the fulfillment of life to glorify God 
by the realization of all His great and gracious purposes. 
What a vision of man ! The immediate and central rela- 
tionship, living by the word of God ; the continuous and 
active relationship, confidence and perfect peace ; the ulti- 
mate and glorious relationship, worshipping Him by being 
what He made him to be, and doing what He meant him to do ! 
From that first glance, through the simplest and yet sub- 
limest words, we turn to the word in which Jesus revealed 



1 18 The Teaching of Christ 

the unity of man's being. He said, " The lamp of the body 
is the eye : if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body 
shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole 
body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that 
is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness ! " * 

All that seems to have very little connection with our 
theme ; but it is important because those are the words that 
prepare for, and lead up to these : " No man can serve two 
masters : for either he will hate the one, and love the other; 
or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye can- 
not serve God and mammon." 2 

In the words, " The lamp of the body is the eye," the eye 
is used figuratively for man's outlook upon life ; for the way 
in which a man sees things affects the way in which he acts, 
and affects therefore the very nature and character of the 
man. Closely connected with that, our Lord referred to the 
response that a man makes to his outlook ; he serves, and he 
serves either God or mammon. Now turning from the di- 
rect teaching of these words, it is evident that our Lord 
looked upon man as unified within his own personality. 

We shall turn presently to another Scripture in which we 
shall find that He recognized the dual fact in every man's 
life ; but this is the deeper word. This was spoken, not of 
a man as one of a fallen race ; but of a man according to 
the Divine ideal. Yes, we shall meet with Dr. Jekyll and 
Mr. Hyde presently; but this is the deeper teaching, and in- 
volves the fact that either Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde becomes 
master; that ultimately no man can be divided within him- 
self; that in the processes of what seem to be conflicting 
forces there is an underlying unity of personality from which 
no man can escape. " Ye cannot serve God and mammon." 
A man may attempt to do so for some time. It may seem 
as though he were doing so, but all the while, in the deepest 
1 Matt. vi. 22-23. 2 J&M't vi. 24. 



Man 119 

secret shrine of sacred and awful individuality, either the serv- 
ice of mammon, or the service of God is hypocrisy ; that there 
is a central fact in human personality which dominates every- 
thing else, and which presently will express itself through 
everything else. If thine eye be dark, then the light that 
is in thee is darkness. If thine eye be single, then the light 
that is in thee is glorious. Man is not dual, but one ; and 
either this or that, commanding him, realizes itself within 
him ; and he ultimately partakes of the nature of that to 
which he yields himself, whether God or mammon. 

Our next word is one revealing His estimate of the rela- 
tive values of the physical and the spiritual. " Be not afraid 
of them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul : 
but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and 
body in Gehenna. ,, * With the latter part of that statement 
we are not now dealing ; for we are considering, not the full 
teaching of the text, but its implication. 

Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill 
the life. We at once see how revolutionary that word is ! 
Men live to-day as though the killing of the body were the 
supreme and most awful matter. Christ treats it as an inci- 
dent merely, something about which a man need not be care- 
ful under certain circumstances. "Be not afraid of them 
which kill the body, and after that have no more they can do." 2 

Thus at once we see His estimate of the relative values 
of the physical and the spiritual. 

There are two other words of our Lord, in which He re- 
vealed the same principle in a relative application. The first 
is that solemn enquiry, " What shall a man be profited, if 
he gain the whole world, and forfeit his life ? or what shall 
a man give in exchange for his life ? " 3 This clearly reveals 
the central truth of His conception, that life is not ultimately 
physical; that there is an essential life to which the whole 
< v l Matt. x. 28. * Luke xii. 4. 3 Matt. xvi. 26. 



] 20 The Teaching of Christ 

material world cannot minister. The other word is that 
which Luke alone chronicled : " A man's life consisteth 
not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." ■ 

The next word is that containing His teaching concerning 
the continuity of personality, or the immortality of man. 
Speaking in answer to the Sadducees, who had asked Him a 
captious question concerning resurrection, He quoted the 
word of God to Moses, " I am the God of Abraham, and the 
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ; " and continuing, He 
affirmed, " God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." 2 

To the Sadducees the question of the resurrection of a 
body was of little moment. They denied the immortality 
of the spirit, and therefore our Lord's answer to them went 
behind their question as to bodily resurrection, and dealt 
with the philosophy which prompted it. He said to them 
in effect, The question you ask about bodily resurrection is 
a very small one in comparison with the difficulty you raise 
concerning the spiritual nature of man. He then appealed 
to their Scriptures. God had said to Moses, when commis- 
sioning him for his great work, "lam . . . the God 
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;" 3 and 
at that time, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were dead, their 
graves being known. But, said Jesus, " God is not the God 
of the dead." They were even then alive. God is the God 
of the living. By that word He affirmed the continuity of 
human personality beyond that which we call death, and 
affirmed that of which we sometimes speak, with more or 
less of accuracy, as the immortality of the soul. 

The final word in this first group is that in which He 
uttered the perfect law of probationary life ; and this again 
in answer to a questioner, who asked which was the greater 
commandment. To him He said, " Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and 
1 Luke xii. 15. 2 Matt. xxii. 32. 3 Exod. iii. 6. 



Man 121 

with all thy mind. This is the great and first command- 
ment. And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love 
thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments 
hangeth the whole law, and the prophets." ' 

That, Christ said, is the law which is absolutely sufficient 
for man in his probationary life, in that period through 
which he must pass in order to be perfected and prepared 
for the larger and more splendid existence that lies beyond 
the present. First, he must love God ; that is, there must 
be the complete response of all his being to God as God ; 
and in that, the true recognition of the unity of his own 
being, and the unification of that being around God. The 
love of God is the master-law of life. In Mark's account 
of this incident he tells us that Christ introduced that word 
of the commandment by using the word with which it is in- 
troduced in the Old Testament Scripture, " Hear, O Israel ; 
the Lord our God is one Lord." Man is one, essentially ; 
and his unity of being is to be realized and maintained by 
conformity to the unity of Deity. Then man must love 
God. The second part of this law is the sequence of the 
first, the proof of the first, " Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bour as thyself." 2 In the love of God there is the unifica- 
tion of self. In the love of neighbour there is the expres- 
sion of self at its highest and best. If a man love God, he 
loves his neighbour, and cannot help it. If a man love 
God, he expresses himself in his love to his neighbour, and 
so fulfills the full and perfect law of life. Our Lord carried 
out this thought in exposition as He said, " On these two 
commandments hangeth the whole law, and the prophets." 
So that if this human being, who is of such Divine relation, 
and of such unity, and in whom the spiritual is the supreme, 
and who persists beyond the article of death ; if he, during 
the period of probation, loves God, and loves his neighbour; 
1 Matt. xxii. 37-40. 2 Mark xii. 29, 31. 



122 The Teaching of Christ 

there is no law that he will break, there is no prophetic 
word to which he will be disobedient. 

The references to man according to human experience 
are briefer. All those which we have considered may be 
used of Jesus Himself. But those to which we are now 
about to refer could not have been spoken of Him. The 
other references dealt with essential humanity. These deal 
with humanity as He found it. 

The first to which I refer is that in which He said, " If 
ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
children." 1 That was a flash of light upon the men in the 
midst of whom He stood. Notice carefully the two things 
He said : first, " being evil " ; and secondly, " know how to 
give good gifts unto your children." 

The phrase " being evil " described an influence exerted, 
rather than a condition ; but yet it postulated a condition. 
He looked at these men, and He described them as evil, 
men exerting an evil influence; but that was because they 
were evil in heart. And yet He said, — and notice this 
carefully, — that they " knew how to give good gifts unto 
their children " ; thus recognizing that even in these men, 
whom He described as evil, there persisted a capacity for 
the highest. They were evil, they were hurtful and harm- 
ful in their attitude towards men ; but there was a region in 
their consciousness which was different. Towards their 
own children they were conscious of another aspect of de- 
sire, intention, and influence. They would give good gifts 
to them. Thus our Lord recognized that in the men who 
were persecuting Him to the very death, there was this dual 
fact; evil mastering them, and yet a capacity for goodness 
that was demonstrated and expressed in the very love they 
bore to their children, and in the way they knew how to 
give them good gifts. This man of evil, watch him with 

1 Matt. vii. ii. 



Man 123 

his children ! His goodness to his child does not change 
the fact of his evil nature and influence ; but it does demon- 
strate a capacity for the highest. Our Lord recognized 
these two things. 

Then we turn to that terrible word, in which He spoke 
of the defilement of human nature, " Not that which en- 
tereth into the mouth defileth the man " 1 ; and the point of 
our Lord's teaching is not that a man is defiled by the things 
that come out therefrom, but that he is proved defiled by 
the things that come out therefrom. " Evil thoughts, mur- 
ders, adulteries "5 all evil things proceeding from the mouth, 
demonstrate the defilement of the life at its centre and core. 

It was in view of these conceptions that He uttered the 
word to His own disciples about entrance to the Kingdom. 
When they asked about greatness in His Kingdom, He 
took them back to the wicket gate, and He said, " Except 
ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise 
enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." 2 In view of these 
conceptions He declared to Nicodemus the necessity for 
new birth. 3 In the one case He indicated a human respon- 
sibility, the turning back to childhood; and in the other 
case He indicated a Divine action, the birth anew into 
childhood. Standing in the midst of humanity, He declared 
that man, although of such wonderful capacity in the econ- 
omy of God, was yet of such defilement in the actuality of 
his life, that there was no hope for his realization of the 
Divine intention save by the mystic touch of a new birth, 
and the communication of a new life. 

The final word which we quote concerning man was that 
in which He declared the opportunity for human restora- 
tion. He said, " No man can come to Me, except the Fa- 
ther which sent Me draw him," 4 and was careful to explain 

1 Matt. xv. 11, 17-20. 3 John iii. 3, 5. 

a Ibid., xviii. 3. 4 Ibid., vi. 44. 



124 The Teaching of Christ 

that every man is drawn of the Father sooner or later in 
some way. He quoted from the ancient prophets, saying, 
" It is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught 
of God." ' When we turn to the prophecies in Isaiah and 
Jeremiah from which He quoted these words, we find that 
in each case the declaration was made when the prophet 
was singing of the restoration of the lost order, " And all 
thy children shall be taught of the Lord ; and great shall 
be the peace of thy children." 2 Continuing, our Lord 
revealed human responsibility in the words " Every one that 
hath heard from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto 
Me." When men are drawn of the Father, not all who 
hear will come ; but all who hear and learn will come. The 
movement which issues in the restoration of a man from his 
degradation must come from God, and from Him alone ; 
but every man is so appealed to, every man is so drawn of 
the Father ; and human responsibility is that not of hearing 
alone, but of learning, and obeying, and answering. 

This meditation reveals the splendour of humanity ac- 
cording to the Divine ideal as revealed in the teaching of 
Christ. It also reveals His clear understanding of the calam- 
ity of human experience as He faced it. But finally it re- 
veals the glory of the possible restoration as He declared it. 

If we set our lives in the light of His teaching, we shall 
think highly of our own possibility in the economy of God ; 
we shall think with sorrow and contrition of all our failure 
in the light of the high ideal ; and we shall think with hope 
of the possibility of restoration by the way of His great and 
gracious mission. 

1 John vi. 45. 2 Isa. liv. 13. Jer. xxxi. 34. 



B. THE TEACHING OF CHRIST 
CONCERNING SIN AND SALVATION 

I. SIN 



"The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins." — Matthew 
ix. 6. 

" Drink ye all of it ; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is shed 
for many unto remission of sins." — xxvi. 27, 28. 



" Whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never for- 
giveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin." — Mark Hi. zg. 



" Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and nse again from 
the dead the third day ; and that repentance and remission of sins should 
be preached in His name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem." 
— Luke xxiv. 46, 47. 



" Verily, verily, I say unto you, Every one that committeth sin is the 
bond-servant of sin." — John viii. 34. 

" If ye were blind, ye would have no sin : but now ye say, We see : 
your sin remaineth." — ix. 41. 

" If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin : but 
now they have no excuse for their sin. He that hateth Me hateth My 
Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other 
did, they had not had sin : but now have they both seen and hated both 
Me and My Father." — xv. 22-24. 

" And He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin. 
. . . Of sin, because they believe not on Me." — xvi. 8, g. 



SIN 

The subject of sin is arresting, absorbing, and abstruse. 
In the broadest sense sin may be defined in the words of 
Kant as that which ought not to be. 

Dr. Orr opens his volume on " Sin as a Problem of To- 
day," with an illuminative paragraph, which I venture to 
quote : 

" What we name sin is, from the religious point of view, 
the tragedy of God's universe. What it is, how it came, 
why it is permitted to develop itself into the havoc and ruin 
it surely entails, what is to be the end of it, above all, how 
its presence and working are to be reconciled with goodness, 
holiness, love, in the God Who has permitted it — these are 
the crushing questions that press upon the spirit of every 
one who thinks deeply on the subject. In its very concep- 
tion sin is that which ought not to be ; which ought never to 
have been. How, then, or why, is it here, this awful, glaring, 
deadly, omnipresent reality in human history and experience ? 
For sin is here : this, conscience and universal experience 
attest. The evidences of its presence are not slight or inter- 
mittent. Men may belittle it, try to forget it, treat it as a 
superstition or disease of imagination — there are no lack of 
such attempts in the thinking of to-day — but the grim reality 
asserts itself in the dullest consciousness, and compels ac- 
knowledgment of its existence and hateful power. Drug 
conscience as deeply as you may, a time comes when it 
awakes. Turn in what direction one will, sin confronts 
one as a fact in human life — an experience of the heart, a 

127 



128 The Teaching of Christ 

development in history, a crimson thread in literature, a 
problem for science, an enigma for philosophy." 

In view of this, we turn with reverent interest and ex- 
pectation to the teaching of Christ ; and recognize at once 
that there is nothing in His teaching in the nature of an 
attempt to solve for us such problems as are suggested by 
the paragraph quoted. Sent of the Father, He came into 
the midst of conditions which He recognized, and with 
which He proceeded to deal. There is abounding evidence 
in these Gospel narratives of His keen and clear conscious- 
ness of the fact of sin. It is equally evident that the deep- 
est meaning of His presence in the world was that of grap- 
pling with this fact of sin, both in itself and in its results. 
As in previous studies, so also in this, even in the absence 
of clear definition, we are able to apprehend His conception 
of the subject under consideration by His references to it. 
In the course of His teaching, moreover, we discover certain 
outstanding declarations which reveal man's relation to sin, 
and his responsibility concerning it. 

Then let us consider first, the revelation of His references 
to this fact of sin ; and secondly the teaching of certain out- 
standing declarations which enable us to understand our re- 
lation to, and responsibility concerning sin. 

First, then, as to the revelation of the references. There 
is no subject for which the Bible uses a larger number of 
descriptive terms than this of sin. The Old Testament has 
at least eleven entirely distinct and separate words by which 
to describe it; and of these words Canon Girdlestone has 
said, " The pictorial power of the Hebrew language is seldom 
exhibited more clearly than in connection with the various 
aspects of evil. Every word is a piece of philosophy ; nay, 
it is a revelation." ' 

When we turn to the New Testament we find an equal 
1 " Old Testament Synonyms," p. 76. 



Sin 1 29 

number of words ; indeed, it would seem as though every 
Hebrew word has its equivalent in the Greek language of 
the New Testament; and of this fact Canon Girdlestone 
further remarks, "With regard to all these words, it is to be 
noticed that the New Testament leans upon the Old Testa- 
ment, and that the vivid teaching of that latter is taken for 
granted as authoritative by the writers of the Christian Scrip- 
tures." ' Approaching the study of these words of the New 
Testament, Archbishop Trench declares, " A mournfully 
numerous group of words. . . . Nor is it hard to see 
why. For sin . . . may be regarded under an infinite 
number of aspects, and in all languages has been so regarded ; 
and as the diagnosis of it belongs most of all to the Scrip- 
tures, nowhere else are we likely to find it contemplated on 
so many sides, set forth under such various images." 2 

In the course of His teaching our Lord made use of 
seven different words when referring to sin ; two of them 
constantly, the other five incidentally, and only on two or 
three occasions in each case. In the first two of these words 
we discover His conception of the essential nature of sin ; and 
in the other five we have revelation of certain aspects of sin. 

But our words are inadequate, and constantly cause trouble 
in our thinking ; and a criticism like that is warranted by 
the fact that the one so criticizing is face to face with a 
difficulty. We speak of evil and take up our Bible and 
read, " I " — the Lord — " create evil " ; 3 and are conscious 
almost of a shock, which is caused by the fact that we for- 
get that the word evil may stand for a great deal more than 
is intended in any one use of it. That may be the reason 
for the variety of words employed in the Bible — at least 
twenty-two different words, eleven in each language — and 

1 " Old Testament Synonyms," p. 86. 

2 " Synonyms of the New Testament," pp. 239, 240. 

3 Isa. xlv. 7. 



130 The Teaching of Christ 

of the fact that our Lord described this appalling and awe- 
inspiring fact by different words, two of them constantly- 
recurring in the course of His ministry. 

The first is poneros^ which is commonly translated evil. 
The root idea of the word is that which is hurtful. The 
first essential meaning of the root from which the word 
comes is that of pain ; and the word itself suggests pain and 
that which causes pain ; that is, hurtful or harmful. The 
use of the word has reference to that which causes trouble, 
and to the trouble which is caused. It describes the active 
principle producing all calamity, material, mental, and 
moral ; and it is also used of the calamity which is thus 
produced. In the case of the statement already quoted, 
u I " — the Lord — " create evil," we should be more accurate 
if instead of the word evil we substituted the word calamity ; 
only we must interpret it by the context, which shows that 
it refers to calamity falling upon a guilty city. It is simply 
a declaration of the sovereignty of Jehovah over the work- 
ing of evil, so that it must, within the realm of the Divine 
overruling and government, issue in calamity. 

This word Christ constantly used, certainly over forty 
times, and it suggests the active principle which produces 
calamity, whether material or mental or moral ; and refers 
to the calamity so caused. When we group the occasions 
upon which our Lord is recorded to have used the word, we 
find that He used it as descriptive of Satan, of demons, of 
men individually, of the age in the midst of which He 
wrought His work ; and upon occasion, in the abstract sense. 
By His employment of this word certain facts are made per- 
fectly clear. He recognized the existence of a force con- 
trary to the good and perfect and acceptable will of God. 
He referred to this force, as having its fountainhead in a 
person, Satan. He recognized that other spiritual beings, 
that man, that the age itself, had passed under the influence 



Sin 131 

of this force, and were mastered by it. By repeated refer- 
ence He made clear His understanding of the fact that this 
force was in itself corrupt, and in its influence was corrupt- 
ing ; that it marred the handiwork of God, prevented the 
realization of His purpose, was against His holiness, and 
contrary to the deepest intentions of His love. He gave no 
single word of explanation as to the genesis of this force in 
the universe. 

The second term, hamartia, is the most common word in 
the New Testament for sin ; and is usually so translated. 
The root of the word is quite uncertain. There are two 
suggestions. The first is that of a failure to grasp j the 
second that of missing possession. But if we are in doubt as 
to the root signification of this word which we translate by 
«», we have no doubt as to its significance as we observe its 
use. It is a word that signifies failure, or quite simply, the 
missing of a mark. In material things the word is used in 
classic Greek of the missing of a mark, as when a man flings 
a spear, and it does not strike its intended target. In the 
mental realm, with regard to art, music and literature, the 
word is used of the artist, also of the musician, or the writer, 
who fails of the highest. Gradually, even in Greek litera- 
ture, the word gained a moral significance, and was used of 
the man whose character and whose conduct were lower 
than the highest. The idea is that of failure. 

This, then, was a common Greek word which New 
Testament writers appropriated, and used only in the moral 
sphere. 

The Lord's use of the word was invariably ethical, and 
such as to imply responsibility. There is not a single in- 
stance in which our Lord made use of this word so as to 
suggest that it was a disease apart from a personal and imme- 
diate moral responsibility. And another matter is equally 
noticeable and is full of gracious light, that Christ's principal 



1 32 The Teaching of Christ 

use of the word was in connection with the central purpose 
of His mission, that of forgiving sin. There were occa- 
sions when He used the term apart from such reference ; 
but in the majority of cases His references to sin were re- 
lated to the thought of forgiveness. He uttered stern 
denunciation of those who refused this forgiveness ; but in 
the view of Christ, sin was moral failure with which He had 
power to deal, so as to forgive the sinner. The glory of 
the redemption of the Cross shines through the references 
that Christ made to sin, even though some of them were of 
the nature of the sternest denunciation. 

From this survey of His references to evil and sin I make 
these brief deductions. Our Lord's outlook upon evil was 
that He considered it to be a principle at work in the universe, 
antagonistic to God and to goodness. Sin, according to the 
conception of Christ, is the volitional act of rebellion 
against God in submission to this principle of evil; and 
consequently it is failure, the missing of the mark, the fall- 
ing short of the highest. 

Now for a brief and yet more hurried glance at the five 
other words of which our Lord made use. He employed a 
word, paraptoma, commonly translated trespass in our New 
Testament. It describes the fact of falling where one 
ought to have stood. It admits the possibility of the fall 
being non-volitional, but nevertheless recognizes it as a fall. 
A trespass is a fall, whether the man intended to fall or not. 
It is failure and imperfection in the sight of God ; and that 
is why the saint can never cease using the prayer for for- 
giveness of trespasses to the end of the pilgrimage. I may 
be delivered from volitional sinning, but in the light of 
heaven's unsullied purity there is no hour in which I do not 
come short of the highest ; and in the light of the eternal 
holiness I am a trespasser, and need the infinite grace of 
His mercy and His forbearance. 



Sin 133 

Another word, anomia, of which our Lord made use is 
commonly translated iniquity, but more accurately lawless- 
ness. It does not describe the condition of a man who has 
never had the law, but rather the attitude of the man who 
refuses to obey the law. In the use of that word our Lord 
revealed His recognition of the principle upon which a man 
acts in the committal of sin. Sin is a missing of the mark, 
a failure, and it is iniquity or lawlessness when it is the result 
of refusal to walk in the light, and to obey law. Therein is 
revealed the active principle of sin in the life of the individ- 
ual, which indicates responsibility. 

Another word, kakia, is generally rendered malice. To 
understand this translation we have to remember how con- 
stantly words change in use ; and in that consideration we 
see the necessity for passing beyond the Authorized Version 
to the Revised Version, and presently abandoning the Re- 
vised for a yet more modern rendering. Our word malice 
is used to-day almost exclusively in the realm of emotional 
life. But the first meaning of malice is badness, and that 
is the suggestion of the word of which it is a translation in 
the New Testament. The Greek word so translated means 
badness, whether it be material, mental, or moral. It is a 
word describing evil in itself; not so much the suffering 
produced, but the principle of evil which results in suffering. 
It is a searching word. Our Lord is only reported to have 
used it once, and that in somewhat remarkable application ; 
but the value it suggests must be borne in mind when we 
face this fact of sin according to the teaching of Christ. 

Another word, adikia, is commonly translated unrighteous- 
ness. It literally means out of the straight. It reveals sin 
in its relation to holiness and righteousness ; holiness being 
rectitude of character, and righteousness rectitude of con- 
duct. Sin is the opposite in character, and in conduct. It 
is life and activity out of the straight. 



134 The Teaching of Christ 

One other word, phaulos, He used, only once or twice, 
but upon supreme occasions. It is translated evil, and yet 
it is a word with which we have not already dealt. It de- 
scribes the condition of good-for-nothingness, and constitutes 
one of the most appalling revelations of sin and evil. It is 
evil as that out of which good can never come ; and thus 
the word reveals the unutterable hopelessness and corrup- 
tion of sin in itself. 

In these words we are brought face to face with the 
thought of Christ about evil and sin. To understand that 
thought we need to turn to the references themselves ; and 
observe our Lord in the midst of a world in which this 
principle of evil was at work, confronted and surrounded 
by sinning men ; we need to hear what He said to them, 
to observe His method with them, to catch these words 
as they pass His lips. Only by such careful consideration 
shall we be able to discover His conception of evil, and 
find His outlook upon sin. He has given us no explana- 
tion of the problem ; there is no word in all His teaching 
which declares what the ultimate is to be, either in the case of 
the individual, or in the case of the race, or in the case of the 
universe. He uttered great words that show results, har- 
vests, and inevitable sequences; and words which reveal 
His conception of the appalling nature of sin and evil. To 
accept His view as revealed in these words, will be to be 
delivered from any superficial thinking about sin ; and will 
more and more make us tremble in its presence, and fear it 
with all the heart and soul and mind. 

We pass in the second place to the consideration of four 
declarations He made ; quite simple, and yet most sublime ; 
incidentally uttered, and yet bringing men face to face with 
their own relation to sin, and demanding our careful con- 
sideration. These words do not deal with evil in the wider 
sense, but with sin in human life. 



Sin 135 

The first passages contain His words recognizing the 
element of personal responsibility in sin. 

For example, to the Pharisees : 

" If ye were blind, ye would have no sin : but now ye 
say, We see; your sin remaineth." ' 

Again, not to the Pharisees, but to His disciples about 
the Pharisees, and those who had rejected Him : 

" If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not 
had sin ; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He that 
hateth Me hateth My Father also. If I had not done among 
them the works which none other did, they had not had sin ; but 
now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father." 2 

Of course there are many values in these words of Christ 
with which we are not now dealing, in which we are not 
now interested. We take them now simply to draw atten- 
tion to what He taught concerning the element of responsi- 
bility in sin. He declared directly to the Pharisees that sin 
is disobedience to light. He declared to His disciples when 
interpreting the fact of sin in the case of the Pharisees that 
He Himself had come into the world as light, that in His 
presence men saw ; and that sin therefore consisted in their 
disobedience to the light which He granted them. No 
man can believe in the infallibility of the teaching of Jesus 
and declare that man is not morally responsible. Christ 
declared that man is not morally responsible if he has had 
no vision ; but He declared that the moment there is vision 
and sight and understanding, moral responsibility is created; 
that such a man stands in the light, in the presence of good 
and of evil, and his sin consists in his refusal to answer the 
sight of his eyes when the light has broken upon him. We 
may speak of degrees of light, and indeed we must so speak. 
To imagine that vast multitudes of the heathen are to be 
consigned to everlasting punishment because they have not 
1 John ix. 41. * Ibid., xv. 22-24. 



136 The Teaching of Christ 

obeyed the Gospel which we have never preached to them, 
is blasphemy of the worst kind. The measure of heathen 
responsibility is the measure of heathen light. Light creates 
responsibility. Sin is disobedience to light. 

The next passage contains His words revealing the ele- 
ment of bondage in sin. 

" Verily, verily, I say unto you, Every one that com- 
mitteth sin is the bond-servant of sin." l The choice creates 
the compulsion. A man stands, seeing clearly. That is 
his opportunity. If he disobey the light, and turn to the 
evil thing, then that evil thing, gaining a victory over him, 
becomes his master, and he is the slave of that which he 
chooses. There is no need for illustration. A man yielding 
to some vulgar passion becomes the slave of that passion, 
and no matter how he strive he cannot break its power. 

The next passages contain His words of warning as to the 
element of fixity in sin. 

"Whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit 
hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin." 2 

I choose for definite purposes of illumination to put that 
passage into immediate connection with another. Our Lord 
was referring to the Holy Spirit, and He said : 

" And He, when He is come, will convict the world in 
respect of sin. . . . Of sin, because they believe not 
on Me." 3 

In the first of these passages our Lord warned men of 
the tendency of sin to become fixed. It is a terrible word. 
It is not strange that men tremble when they read it. 
" Whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy T Spirit hath 
never forgiveness, but is guilty " of perpetuity of sin, fixity 
in sin, age-abiding sin. The men to whom He was speak- 
ing at the moment had not committed that sin. He saw 
that they were in danger of it, for they were attempting to 
account for His work by attributing His power to the 

1 John viii. 34. 2 Mark iii. 29. 8 John xvi. 8, 9. 



Sin 137 

devil ; and in a flash He revealed to them that the last 
method of God lay beyond the hour of His own ministry. 
He said in effect, You can say anything against Me, and it 
will be forgiven you, but there is another age beyond this, that 
of the dispensation of the Spirit : " He, when He is come, 
will convict the world in respect of sin " ; of sin because they 
do not obey the light of My presence. If you refuse that 
spiritual interpretation which is yet to come, then sin will be- 
come fixed, an age-abiding sin ; and an age-abiding sin in- 
volves an age-abiding nemesis and punishment. It is the most 
awful peril of sin which our Lord revealed in these words. 

The last passages to be quoted contain the words in 
which He declared the possibility of the forgiveness of sin. 

The first is : 

" The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins." ■ 

He had pronounced forgiveness upon a man who was 
sick of the palsy, and they criticized Him and said that He 
blasphemed ; to which He replied, " Wherefore think ye evil 
in your hearts ? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins 
are forgiven ; or to say, Arise and walk ? But that ye may 
know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive 
sins (then saith He to the sick of the palsy), Arise, and take 
up thy bed, and go unto thy house." 2 

This is a wonderful picture, in which we see evil in the 
moral and material realms, the suffering resulting from the 
sin. Christ saw the connection. Then to the man He 
said, " Thy sins are forgiven " ; and later, " Arise and walk." 
He never healed bodily affliction save upon the basis of 
removing spiritual malady. That is the meaning of the 
great utterance in which Matthew declared that when He 
healed all' that were sick, He did so in fulfillment of the 
word of the prophet Isaiah, " Himself took our infirmities, 
and bare our diseases." 3 All His material healing was 
based upon His ability to deal with the spiritual and moral 

1 Matt. ix. 6. 2 Ibid., ix. 4-6. 3 Ibid., viii. 17. 



138 The Teaching of Christ 

malady lying behind the material suffering. That was the 
authority to which He referred when He said, " The Son of 
Man hath power on earth to forgive sins." 

The next passage reads : 

" Drink ye all of it ; for this is My blood of the cove- 
nant, which is shed for many unto remission of sins." l 

The setting of these words is perfectly familiar ; the sur- 
roundings of the paschal board ; the institution of the new 
memorial feast of Christianity ; the Lord taking the fruit of 
the vine, and saying, with the sacred cup in His hand, 
" This is My blood of the covenant, which is shed for 
many unto remission of sins." 

The final word was spoken after the Cross, and after res- 
urrection : 

" Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise 
again from the dead the third day ; and that repentance and 
remission of sins should be preached in His name unto all 
the nations, beginning from Jerusalem." 2 

Now mark the significance of these three words of Christ. 
First, He claimed authority to forgive sins; secondly, He 
revealed His way of forgiving sins ; and finally, He claimed 
the accomplishment of His work. 

This then is the ultimate word of Christ about sin. It is 
a word that declares His victory over it, and His power to 
forgive it ; and that by the way of a Cross that defies man's 
ability to explore it to its depths, or to speak the final word 
about its hidden mystery of pain. Thus our Lord teaches 
.us the awfulness of sin, and reveals to us our solemn re- 
sponsibilities in the presence of the evil force in the uni- 
verse ; but He stands in the midst of all the malady, — 
material, mental, and moral, — and claims that by the mys- 
tery of His Cross, He is able to forgive sin ; and to give to 
every man the new opportunity by way of moral recon- 
struction, which shall issue in the full realization of the 
good and perfect and acceptable will of God. 

1 Matt. xxvi. 27, 28. 2 Luke xxiv. 46, 47. 



II. SALVATION 



" Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm ? to save a life, 
or to destroy it ? " — Luke vi. g. 

" Thy faith hath saved thee ; go in peace." — vii. 30. 

" Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole ; go in peace." — viii. 48. 

" Fear not ; only believe, and she shall be made whole." — viii. jo. 

" Arise, and go thy way : thy faith hath made thee whole." — xvii. ig. 

" Receive thy sight : thy faith hath made thee whole." — xviii. 42. 

" The Son of Man came to seek c and to save that which was lost."— 
xix. 10, 



II 

SALVATION 

The title, Saviour, the abstract noun, salvation, and the 
verb, to save, have gained a peculiar sanctity by their 
Christian associations. These words have a common origin, 
coming to us from the Latin salvus, simply signifying safe. 
All the cognate words in the Latin language have equivalents 
in our language, of which we are perpetually making use 
in the realm of Christian truth. These words again have 
their exact equivalents in the language of which our New 
Testament is a translation, and all of them became current 
coin in the language of Christianity at a very early period. 

The words Saviour, salvation, and save, are found in the 
writings of every one of the New Testament authors. In 
one form or another the thought runs through all the apos- 
tolic writings, and we are constantly confronted in our read- 
ing of the New Testament with the theme of salvation. 

The original idea conveyed by these words is that of im- 
munity from harm or danger. The verb to save, however, 
has acquired a new sense in Christian use. In ordinary 
use the verb to save means to preserve from danger. In 
the Christian sense to save is to deliver out of the danger, 
and to rescue from all the harm which has already been 
wrought. The substantive salvation in Christian speech 
refers at once to the activity which produces such safety, 
and to the state of safety which results from that activity. 
The title Saviour, in the New Testament, and in the sanc- 
tified and intelligent speech of the Christian Church has 
been reserved for the One Who saves in this great sense. 

With these preliminary and technical definitions in mind, 

141 



142 The Teaching of Christ 

we turn to a consideration of Christ's teaching on the sub- 
ject j distinctly recognizing that we are not now dealing 
with the method, but confining ourselves strictly to the idea 
conveyed. In subsequent chapters we shall further con- 
sider this great theme of salvation, considering other aspects ; 
but now we are investigating the thought as revealed in our 
Lord's teaching on the subject. 

What material have we at our disposal ? We have no 
single recorded instance of our Lord's employment of the 
word Saviour, as applying to Himself. Only on two oc- 
casions do the Gospels record His having made use of the 
word salvation ; once when talking to a Samaritan woman, 
He said to her, " salvation is from the Jews," x by which 
He most evidently meant that in the Divine economy the 
Hebrew nation was that through which the Messiah Saviour 
should come ; and once when He said to Zacchaeus, " To- 
day is salvation come to this house." 2 

But while it is true that He never used the word Saviour^ 
and that we only have the record of His use of the word 
salvation twice, the word to save He constantly employed, 
both in the material and moral realms. Our translations 
somewhat obscure this fact. Our versions report Him as 
having said, " Thy faith hath made thee whole," 3 when the 
word is exactly the same, and we might with perfect ac- 
curacy translate : " Thy faith hath saved thee." Indeed 
the word is stamped upon the page in all the stories of the 
work and teaching of Jesus ; He was constantly speaking 
of saving. It is however very suggestive that our Lord is 
never recorded as having used the word to save in any 
lower application than that of human life. We talk about 
saving property ; He never did. He used the word only 
when referring to humanity, and to the physical, to the 
mental, or to the essential spiritual life. We shall con- 
1 John iv. 22. 2 Luke xix. 9. 3 Ibid., viii. 48. 



Salvation 143 

centrate our attention upon the story of Zacchaeus as illus- 
tration and declaration. The whole story affords an illus- 
tration of our Lord's thought about salvation, for in the 
moment when Zacchaeus stood and made his great confes- 
sion of purposed restitution, our Lord said, " To-day is sal- 
vation come to this house." ' That warrants us in using 
the story as an illustration of His conception of salvation. 
And immediately in connection therewith He made His great 
claim, " The Son of Man came to seek and to save that 
which was lost." 2 I propose therefore to concentrate upon 
that story ; but I also propose to interpret, by our Lord's 
use of the verb to save, elsewhere what He meant thereby 
when He declared that He had come to save the lost. 

The setting of this incident must be emphasized in order 
to make it plain that in this story we have a supreme illus- 
tration of the work of Christ as Saviour ; and an exposition 
of the declaration that the purpose of His coming was that 
of seeking and of saving. 

The story of Zacchaeus is closely connected with the 
revelation of the hostility of Christ's enemies, which is more 
clearly marked in this Gospel than in either of the others. 
There is a development of it clearly manifest through the 
narrative. The fifteenth chapter is closely linked to the 
fourteenth. That is seen as we connect the last words of 
the fourteenth chapter with the first words of the fifteenth. 
They never ought to have been separated. Jesus was 
speaking, and He said : " He that hath ears to hear, let 
him hear" ; and immediately the story runs on : " Now all 
the publicans and sinners were drawing near unto Him for 
to hear Him." That is a sequence, almost hidden by the 
division of our Bible into chapters. Then, still in unbroken 
continuity, the writer tells us, " And both the Pharisees and 
the scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, 
1 Luke xix. 9. ' Ibid., xix. 10. 



144 The Teaching of Christ 

and eateth with them." Observe very carefully that their 
criticism of Him was due to the fact that He received sin- 
ners. If we would understand this, and get at the true 
meaning of it, we must set our minds free for the moment 
from the great values which we associate with the words, 
" This man receiveth sinners." We hear all the music of 
the evangel singing through them ; but let them be read as 
they were spoken, as words of criticism. Then let us en- 
deavour to see what these men saw which caused their diffi- 
culty. Christ came from the house of a Pharisee, where 
He had been entertained, and immediately made Himself, to 
all outward seeming, perfectly one with a great crowd of 
sinning men. His attitude towards them was not that of 
patronage, was not that of superiority ; He took them to His 
heart ; if I may say that which almost sounds irreverent, His 
attitude was that which would have been designated to-day 
as, " hail fellow well met," towards all the rabble gathered 
about. That was the astonishing thing, which perplexed 
the Pharisees, and made them afraid of Him. Technically 
and traditionally they were men of extreme purity of life. 
" He receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." This then 
is an outstanding illustration of the hostile atmosphere in 
which our Lord was doing His work. He answered their 
criticism by the parable of lost things which immediately 
follows ; the one parable with its threefold value ; the lost 
sheep, the lost silver, the lost son ; the good shepherd, the 
seeking woman, and the rejoicing father ; an interpretation, 
to those who had eyes to see, and hearts to understand, of 
the meaning of His familiarity with sinning men ; an un- 
folding of the fact that He was there in the midst of sinners 
for the one purpose of saving them. The parable was not 
perfectly understood ; and I follow the story on until I come 
to the eighteenth chapter, and there I see Him with His face 
set towards Jerusalem, and I hear these words, " He took 



Salvation 1 45 

unto Him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up 
to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written by the 
prophets shall be accomplished unto the Son of Man. For 
He shall be delivered up unto the Gentiles, and shall be 
mocked, and shamefully entreated, and spit upon : and they 
shall scourge and kill Him : and the third day He shall rise 
again. And they understood none of these things." ' He 
was on the same pathway, the same mission was still the 
passion of His heart. His face was now set towards Jeru- 
salem. He passed through Jericho, and there occurred the 
incident of Zacchaeus. 

In this sequence our story is seen to be a remarkable illus- 
tration of His own conception of His work ; first we see His 
attitude criticized by the Pharisees ; secondly, the passion 
that drove Him towards the Cross was declared to disciples 
who were unable to understand; until finally in concrete 
form came a revelation of His own conception of His work. 

Let us first refresh our memories as to the actual facts of 
the incident. In spite of all the commentators and exposi- 
tors, Zacchaeus did not climb the sycamore tree because he 
was anxious to see Jesus. He climbed the sycamore tree 
because there was a crowd, and he wanted to see who was 
causing it. The crowd was passing that way, and he 
climbed, notice carefully the words : " He sought to see 
Jesus who He was" 2 The real fact was that this man was 
curious because of the crowd. Humanity is the same in 
London as in Jericho. If there is a crowd in London, men 
always want to know what is happening ; and Zacchaeus, 
suffering from the limitation of his stature, climbed the tree 
to do so. It is not that he knew Jesus, and was eager to 
look upon Him. Zacchaeus was a Roman tax-gatherer, and 
he was rich. He was therefore a rogue. That needs no 
argument. There have been many attempts to whitewash 
1 Luke xviii. 31-34. 8 lbid. t y\TH. 3. 



146 The Teaching of Christ 

this man, but it is impossible. He was not a rogue because 
he was rich, but because he was a tax-gatherer, and rich. 
When John the Baptist began his ministry, he said to the 
publicans : " Extort no more than that which is appointed 
you " ; 1 and those familiar with the method of this gather- 
ing of the Roman taxes know that the tax-gatherer farmed 
a district ; and if he exacted no more than his due, he never 
became a rich man. But Zacchaeus was a rich man, and 
therefore a rogue. 

When Christ arrived beneath that tree, He halted, and 
looking up, He said, " Zacchaeus, make haste, and come 
down ; for to-day I must abide at thy house." 2 I am not 
quite sure which of two things may be more accurately 
suggested by that self-invitation of Jesus to the house of 
Zacchaeus. Perhaps both are true. First it was a sign of 
perfect friendship and comradeship. How many houses are 
there in this country to which we can invite ourselves ? That 
is the final sign of a perfect friendship, and in that view we 
find another instance of the familiarity with which Christ 
approached these men. He asked hospitality. Or was it 
the word of a great sovereignty ; for the King ever informs 
those whose hospitality He is prepared to accept ? Was it 
not rather supremely the evidence of a profound compas- 
sion, in which sovereignty and service merged and mingled ? 
But be that as it may, to the surprise of the man, He asked 
his hospitality ; and gladly and joyfully he came down and 
received Him. As they passed together into that home, 
the multitude murmured. It was the last wail of hopeless- 
ness, " He is gone in to lodge with a man that is a sinner." 3 

What was the effect produced ? We are told sometimes 
to-day that the revival we need is ethical. Here was an 
ethical revival. We do not know how long they were to- 
gether in converse, or what Jesus said to him in the loneli- 
1 Luke iii. 13. 2 Ibid. % xix. 5. 3 Ibid. % xix. 7. 



Salvation 1 47 

ness of his own house. But we know the results. Within a 
very brief period the man was disgorging his ill-gotten gains. 

Now mark most carefully that, in this connection, our 
Lord made His one recorded public definite use of the word 
salvation : " To-day is salvation come to this house." ' The 
proof that salvation had come was that the man was revealed 
as " a son of Abraham." Do not confuse cause and effect 
in this story. Christ declared salvation had come to the 
house. How did He prove it ? " Forasmuch as he also is 
a son of Abraham." Was he not a son of Abraham before ? 
Jesus did not recognize his sonship until he did the works 
which were the outcome of faith. In the hour of supreme 
conflict with the rulers, later on, Jesus said, " If ye were 
Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham." 2 
Of this man, giving up ill-gotten gains, swinging back to 
lines of righteousness ; morally remade, and demonstrating 
his moral reconstruction by his righteous act ; Christ said, 
That is a son of Abraham. To-day salvation is come to 
this house. There is the evidence of it ! 

Salvation then is a power that takes hold of a man, and 
remakes him. And immediately following, in closest con- 
nection, our Lord declared in simple words the meaning of 
His own mission in the world, " The Son of Man came to 
seek and to save." " To-day is salvation come to this house." 
The Son of Man came to do that ! He was criticized for 
eating with sinning men, for accepting the hospitality of a 
rogue ! But the results reveal the purpose of His going into 
that house. He came to seek and save that which was lost. 

Now let us turn to other illustrations, in order that we 
may know what He really meant when He said in the pres- 
ence of Zacchaeus, that His business was that of saving. 
Let us take one or two occasions on which He used the 
word in the material realm. When He was about to heal 
1 Luke xix. 9. 3 John viii. 39. 



148 The Teaching of Christ 

the man with the withered hand in the synagogue, He 
challenged the scribes and Pharisees by asking this question, 
" Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm ? 
to save a life, or to destroy it ? " ' When the woman 
touched Him and was healed of her issue of blood, He 
turned and said, " Daughter, thy faith hath saved thee ; go 
in peace." 2 When He was taken to the house of the dead 
child of Jairus He said to Jairus, " Fear not : only believe, 
and she shall be saved*' 3 After the cleansing of the ten 
lepers, He said to the one who alone returned to praise God, 
" Arise, and go thy way : thy faith hath saved thee." 4 Once 
again, when He healed the blind man, He said to him, 
" Receive thy sight : thy faith hath saved thee." 5 

In the case of the man with the withered hand, what did 
He mean by saving ? The withered hand was restored. 
In the case of the woman with the issue of blood what did 
He mean ? " The issue of her blood was stanched." 
When He spoke of the dead child being saved, what did 
He mean ? " Her spirit returned," and immediately she 
rose. When He spoke to the leper, what did He mean by 
saying " thy faith hath saved thee " ? He was cleansed. 
What did He mean by being saved when the blind man re- 
ceived his sight ? He saw. Gather together those illustra- 
tions, and we find in every case that on the lips of Jesus 
the word save meant the negativing of destructive forces, 
and the restoration to men and women of all that had been 
lost thereby. That is in the material realm alone. The 
withered hand was restored whole as the other. For long, 
long years in the case of the woman the blood had been 
flowing, and she had suffered ostracism, excommunication, 
and the loss of everything ; and in a moment the fountain 

1 Luke vi. 9. 4 Ibid., xvii. 19. 

2 Ibid., viii. 48. 5 Ibid., xviii. 42. 
8 Ibid., viii. 50. 



Salvation 149 

of her blood was stanched, the whole trouble ceased. The 
child was dead ; He uttered one soft rhythmic command, 
" Talitha cumi," and the spirit came back, and the eyelids 
fluttered, the lips opened, the limbs moved, and she rose 
and went to father and mother. Leprosy was cleansed, so 
that the flesh was again the flesh of a little child. Blind- 
ness was ended, and sight given. That was His common 
use of the word. 

Pass from these material illustrations, and take two only 
in the moral realm. The first is that of the woman who 
was a sinner, who came into the house of Simon; and 
Simon stood in amazement and in anger. What did Simon 
see that shocked him ? Simon saw a fallen woman fon- 
dling Jesus ; and we miss the whole impact of the story if 
we dare to put it in any softer form or fashion. Luke with 
fine delicacy says, " A woman which was in the city, a 
sinner; " and this woman crossed the threshold of the house 
of Simon, knelt behind the couch on which Jesus reclined 
at the board, and began to wash His feet with her tears as 
she wept, and wipe them with her hair. Simon in amaze- 
ment saw a woman who had never crossed the threshold 
before, — a sinning woman, — fondling Jesus; and he said 
within his soul, That either means that He will be polluted, 
or else that there is some guilty secret in the past. Now 
listen to the words of Christ : " Simon, I have somewhat 
to say unto thee " ; and to the reply, " Master, say on ! " 
Then the Master put that woman into comparison with 
Simon, and said in effect : Simon, your mistake is that you 
are looking at the woman as she was. Look at her as she 
is. You only know her past. Look at her now. You 
have criticized her as being a sinning woman. I tell you, 
Simon, that, by the side of her, you are as coarse sack-cloth 
in comparison with finest silk. In the matter of common 
courtesy that woman has made up for your boorishness by 



150 The Teaching of Christ 

her sweetness and her love. And, Simon, now I will tell 
you the secret. Her sins which are many are forgiven; — 
for Christ did not mean to say that she was forgiven be- 
cause she loved; but that she loved because she was for- 
given. He had known her before, He had met her before. 
He had wrought in her soul the moral healing that had re- 
made her ! Then He looked at her, and He said, " Thy 
faith hath saved thee." x He used the word now in the 
moral realm, and what does the story reveal as to its mean- 
ing ? A sinning, soiled, smirched woman, held in profound 
contempt by Simon the Pharisee, had become the gentle, 
the refined, the beautiful, who made up for the boorishness 
of his failure in the tenderness of her ministry to her Lord. 
His moral use of the word has the same significance as His 
material use of it, with a broader reach, and a more spacious 
application. To save, according to this conception of Christ, 
is to take hold of all the destructive forces, and to destroy 
them, and to realize the highest beauty and glory of life. 

The other occasion is that of Zacchaeus who, at first hard 
and unscrupulous, suddenly became repentant, and com- 
passionate, giving half his goods to the poor, making restitu- 
tion fourfold. Of that change Christ said, That is salvation, 
to-day is salvation come to this house ; and I came to bring 
it ; "the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which 
was lost." 2 

Salvation then according to the teaching of Christ is the 
complete change from one condition to its opposite. The 
withered hand healthy and powerful, cessation of the issue 
of blood, the dead child alive, the leprous men cleansed, 
the blind eyes seeing ; all these He described as saved. 

Passing to the moral, we reach the realm of mysticism. 
But we may interpret the moral by the material. The for- 
giveness of sins is not merely that God will never again 
1 Luke vii. 50. 2 Ibid., xix. 10. 



Salvation 151 

mention the things done in the past. The forgiveness of 
sins means sins put away, not as guilt merely, but as virus, 
poison, disability. 

Salvation in all its full sense is not a present experience 
of the saint. The apostle wrote, and his meaning grows 
upon me, " Now is salvation nearer to us than when we 
first believed. ,, ' There is a sense in which we come im- 
mediately into possession of the force that destroys the de- 
structive, and that remakes; but never in this world is 
either salvation or condemnation completed. Nevertheless 
the process is one that culminates in perfection ; and Christ 
will never think of me as finally saved until He gathers me 
into His presence, and in the last beatific vision makes even 
my body to be conformed to the body of His glory. That 
is His purpose, and for that purpose He has power adequate. 
According to the teaching of Jesus, salvation or safety is the 
state of having the destructive forces destroyed, and the es- 
sential life realized. The Son of Man came to do that work. 

Place this meditation in relation to our previous one, in 
which we saw what Christ taught concerning sin, as to the 
element of human responsibility, the fact of bondage in sin, 
and the awful peril of fixity in sin. Place that awe-inspir- 
ing teaching concerning sin by the side of this concerning 
salvation. Salvation means, according to the interpretation 
of Jesus, first the forgiveness of a man for failure to fulfill 
responsibility ; secondly the liberty of a man in that he had 
become the bond-slave of sin ; and finally power in the man, 
denying, breaking up the fixity of sin, and bringing him into 
a glorious liberty. Every material miracle had in it the 
element of moral value, and the final truth revealed is that, 
according to Jesus, salvation, when it is accomplished, is 
immunity from all harm, and all danger; and His mission 
is that of bringing such salvation to men who need it. 

1 Rom. xiii. n. 



III. HIS SAVING MISSION 



" Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets : I came not 
to destroy, but to fulfill." — Matthew v. if. 

" Think not that I came to send peace on the earth : I came not to send 
peace but a sword ! " — x. 34. 

" He that receiveth you receiveth Me, and he that receiveth Me re- 
ceiveth Him that sent Me." — x. 40. 

" The Son of t Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and 
to give His life a ransom for many." — xx. 28. 



" He that rejecteth you rejecteth Me ; and he that rejecteth Me rejecteth 
Him that sent Me." — Luke x. 16. 

" I came to cast fire upon the earth ; and what will I, if it is already 
kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I 
straitened till it be accomplished ! " — xii. 49-JO. 

11 The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." — 
xix. 10. 



" I am come in My Father's name, and ye receive Me not." — John 
v.43. 

" I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." — x. 10. 

" For this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name."— 
xii. 27-28, 



Ill 

HIS SAVING MISSION 

Bearing in mind the general conception and claim 
of Christ touching salvation, we proceed to consider His 
teaching concerning His saving mission. We start with 
the claim itself, uttered in relation to the moral miracle 
wrought in the case of Zacchaeus ; and there are one or two 
preliminary matters important to the correct apprehension 
of its value. First, the title u the Son of Man " was our 
Lord's favourite title for Himself. It must be recognized 
also that His use of it was personal, and not generic. Even 
though it be a mathematical way of stating it, there is sug- 
gestiveness in the fact that the title occurs two-and-thirty 
times in the Gospel of Matthew, fifteen times in the Gospel 
of Mark, twenty-six in Luke, and twelve in John ; and that, 
with two exceptions, it is always used by Christ Himself, of 
Himself. In the Gospel of John, at the twelfth chapter, 
we find that men once said to Him, " We have heard out 
of the law that the Christ abideth forever : and how sayest 
Thou, The Son of Man must be lifted up ? who is this Son 
of Man ? " ' Evidently they took the phrase from His own 
lips, impressed by His continual use of it, and challenged 
Him as to what He meant when He described Himself as 
the Son of Man. In every other case, all through the 
Gospels, this descriptive phrase was used by Christ Himself. 
A careful comparison of these passages will show that our 
Lord never used the phrase in a generic sense, or with 
reference to any other than Himself. 

Notice also the claim made in the general terms of this 

1 John xii. 34. 
155 



156 The Teaching of Christ 

text. We have found that when Christ used the word save 
of material miracle, He described the complete restoration to 
health of the person who had been afflicted ; and that when 
He used the phrase in the moral realm, He described the com- 
plete restoration to holiness of character and rectitude of 
conduct of such as had been spiritually and morally disabled. 
But the central word of value for the present considera- 
tion is the word " came." " The Son of Man came to seek 
and to save that which was lost." 1 In referring to His 
mission our Lord made use of two methods of speech. He 
spoke of Himself constantly as the Sent of the Father, 
and He spoke of Himself as coming for the doing of a work. 
The first method is so full of interest and value that I can- 
not wholly pass over it. In my Testament I have marked 
out the occasions upon which He claimed to be sent of God, 
and it is remarkable how constantly this thought was pres- 
ent to His own mind. Each of the synoptists chronicles 
at least one instance, and in each case an important one, in 
which He referred to the fact that He was the Sent of God : 
" He that receiveth you receiveth Me, and he that receiveth 
Me receiveth Him that sent Me." 2 Luke chronicles the 
negative statement also, " He that rejecteth you rejecteth 
Me ; and he that rejecteth Me rejecteth Him that sent 
Me." 3 But this claim of the Lord is most remarkably 
manifest in the Gospel of John. It is the very warp of His 
teaching as there set forth. The first instance occurs in His 
dealing with an individual seeker, when in conversation 
with Nicodemus He claimed that He had been sent by God, 
and then in every successive chapter in the Gospel of John 
up to and including the seventeenth, the chapter of the 
great intercessory prayer, He is perpetually recorded as al- 
luding to the fact that He was the Sent of the Father. In 
chapters eighteen and nineteen, which deal with His sor- 
1 Luke xix. 10. 2 Matt. x. 40. 8 Luke x. 16. 



His Saving Mission 157 

rows, and are characterized by comparative silence, that fact 
is not mentioned ; and the last occurrence is in chapter 
twenty. This brings clearly before the mind the fact that 
in the common speech of Christ we have a revelation of the 
fact, both definitely declared, and incidentally referred to, 
that He wrought and spoke as One claiming to have been 
sent into the world by God Himself. 

In each case, both in these references to the fact of His 
having been sent, and in His references to the fact that He 
came into the world, the implication is that of His pre- 
existence. All His speech has in it that tone and that 
emphasis. Whereas in certain matters He spoke, as we 
have seen in an earlier study, in terms which must be 
described as temporal, or of an age, He far more often spoke 
in terms which were eternal, or of all the ages ; and in these 
He either described Himself as the Sent of God, or as com- 
ing into the world, thereby claiming a prior existence. 

All these declarations reveal a definite purpose, as the ex- 
planation of His advent. He was here for a purpose, sent 
of God for a definite mission. He came for the fulfillment 
of that mission. We shall confine ourselves here to certain 
outstanding words in which He spoke of Himself as having 
come, and in which He declared the purpose of His coming, 
and revealed the method by which He would accomplish 
that purpose. 

There are four outstanding declarations as to purpose ; all 
made before Caesarea Philippi, the place of Peter's confes- 
sion, after which our Lord turned to a new and distinct part 
of His work. There are also four equally definite state- 
ments concerning method ; all of which were made after 
Caesarea Philippi, beyond the hour of Peter's confession, r be- 
yond the hour in which Christ unveiled to His disciples two 
great secrets, first of the Church as the instrument through 
which He would prepare for the Kingdom, and the Cross as 



1 58 The Teaching of Christ 

the one and only method by which it would be possible for 
Him to build His Church, or to establish His Kingdom. 

The first outstanding declaration of Jesus concerning the 
purpose of His mission is to be found in the Manifesto : 
" Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets : 
I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. " * 

The second is to be found in the same Gospel : " I came 
not to call the righteous, but sinners." 2 That saying is also 
recorded by Mark and Luke. 

The third is also found in Matthew : " Think not that I 
came to send peace on the earth : I came not to send peace, 
but a sword ! " 3 

And the final reference is found in John's Gospel : 

u I am come in My father's name, and ye receive Me 
not." 4 

In the first claim our Lord declared the ultimate ethical 
purpose of His presence in the world. This statement is 
found at the commencement of a brief paragraph, which 
closes with these words, " Except your righteousness shall 
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall 
in no wise enter into the Kingdom of heaven." 5 It is of 
supreme importance that we should recognize that this is 
Christ's first word as to the purpose of His mission in the 
world. The evangelical presentation of the Gospel has led 
some astray from this, or has made them unmindful of it. 
The first purpose, the ultimate purpose, the passion of His 
heart, was the establishment of the law of God, and the 
creation in men of a character of holiness which should is- 
sue in a conduct of righteousness. The ultimate purpose 
of the mission of Christ is thus revealed to be ethical ; and 
that according to this word of Jesus, and the whole of His 
teaching harmonizes with it, He did not come into this 

1 Matt. v. 17. 3 Ibid., x. 34. « Matt. v. 20. 

2 Ibid., ix. 13. 4 John v. 43. 



His Saving Mission 159 

world to persuade God to excuse men who are moral 
failures. He came into the world to establish the law, to 
make it honourable ; to stand in the midst of human history 
as the severest of all moral teachers, embodying the highest 
ideal of law, and at all costs insisting upon obedience 
thereto. In that ultimate triumph of Christ, when He shall 
see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied, and in those 
who have been ransomed and redeemed shall find the fulfill- 
ment of His highest purpose, He will not lead into the 
larger life a great host of men and women crippled and in- 
capable, without spiritual power, and defective in moral 
character. When His work is done in His own, He will 
present them to His Father without spot or wrinkle or any 
such thing, absolutely perfect, with the perfection of His 
own holiness of character and righteousness of conduct. I 
came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill. 
The master-passion of the heart of Christ was ethical, holy, 
righteous ; and the very first word in which He made any 
statement concerning His mission in the world was a word 
in which He insisted upon this fact. 

But had He said nothing else I should have had no 
Gospel. That is not the Gospel. It is preliminary to the 
Gospel. It is a revelation of the ultimate value of the 
Gospel ; but it is not the Gospel. He came and He gave 
the world His ethic in that great Manifesto, which so many 
men are admiring, but which so few men will dare try to 
obey ; that Manifesto from which it is the fashion of the 
hour to deduce certain social values, in order that we may 
attempt to realize them, but which men seem to forget is 
introduced by words thrilling with tenderness, and yet 
vibrant with the thunder of an awful holiness, as the great 
moral Teacher, — if you speak of Jesus as being such — 
puts at the forefront of His Manifesto the absolute neces- 
sity for character. But that is not the Gospel. If I have 



]6o The Teaching of Christ 

nothing other than the Sermon on the Mount I have no 
Gospel to preach. 

The second of these words, in the light of this high dec- 
laration concerning ultimate ethical purpose, is the more 
amazing and the more arresting. " I came not to call the 
righteous, but sinners." * They declare His immediate re- 
deeming purpose. 

Jesus was upon this occasion defending Himself against 
the criticism of those who did not understand His attitude 
towards sinning men* He sat down and ate with publicans 
and sinners ; and He violated tradition as He did so with 
unwashen hands. He made Himself, most evidently, the 
personal, near, close companion of sinning men ; and the 
moralists of His day, whose only conception of morality 
was that it must be maintained by absolute separation from 
all sinning men, in habits and in social life, looked with 
amazement at Him, and they criticized Him ; and He an- 
swered their criticism by saying, " They that are whole have 
no need of a physician, but they that are sick. ... I 
came not to call the righteous, but sinners." In that state- 
ment He explained the meaning of His companionship with 
sinning men. He revealed the fact that the passion of His 
heart for them was that of the physician. Now there are 
two things that the illustration connotes. The physician is 
needed when there is disease ; but the passion of the physi- 
cian is for health. So that the first principle is not violated 
in the second. I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill. 
I have come to take hold of the morally and spiritually sick, 
and make them well ; that is the immediate purpose of My 
presence in the world ; and if there are men who are right- 
eous, and have no moral malady, no spiritual sickness, I 
have no message for them. 

Now that is a very astonishing thing, but it is our Lord's 

1 Matt. ix. 13. 



His Saving Mission 161 

own teaching. If you are righteous, having no spiritual 
malady, no spiritual sickness, Christ has no message for 
you. I leave that matter for application in the loneliness of 
the inner life of every man and woman ; only before we 
decide as to whether we have moral malady, or spiritual 
sickness, let this Physician examine us, and He will do it 
with that selfsame Manifesto, that ethical standard that is 
not satisfied with an external uprightness unless there be an 
absolute heart purity. When He has examined the life, if 
we can stand erect and say, we have no malady, then He 
will say to us : I have no message for you. 

Few of us will escape the conviction of need if we let Him 
deal with us. But here is the Gospel, " The Son of Man 
came to seek and to save that which was lost." "I came not 
to call the righteous, but sinners " ; I came, — whatever that 
may include of self-emptying, and stooping in humility, and 
a long pathway of suffering and sorrow, — to call sinners. 

The next words are, " Think not that I came to send 
peace on the earth : I came not to send peace, but a 
sword ! " ' Here we specially need all the context or we 
shall surely be mistaken as to our Lord's meaning. He 
was insisting upon the absolute necessity of loyalty to Him. 
Remember He came with an ultimate ethical purpose in 
His heart. He came also with an immediate redeeming 
purpose. Now if the incompetent man, the broken man, 
the man who has failed morally, is to receive healing, health, 
holiness, to realize the Divine purpose ; that man must un- 
reservedly and absolutely put himself under the guidance 
and direction and rule of Jesus. There must be no afFec- 
tion allowed to interfere, no earthly tie must restrain, no 
passion or pride of the self-life must be permitted to hinder. 
The right hand must be cut off, and cast away ; the right 
eye must be plucked out ; neither father, mother, nor child 

1 Matt. x. 34. 



162 The Teaching of Christ 

must be loved more than He, or we are not worthy of Him. 
These are the severest terms tfiat it is possible for us to 
imagine ; and therefore there must be a separating process ; 
not peace, but a sword. This is merely a description of a 
process, a declaration of what must inevitably happen if 
men will follow Him absolutely, in order that He may heal 
them perfectly, and fulfill His high purpose within them ; 
and so at the commencement, that there may be no mistake, 
He said, " not peace, but a sword." If we are conscious 
of moral malady, of spiritual sickness, and come to this great 
Physician, Whose ultimate purpose is our health of soul, 
and Whose immediate purpose is the redemption that shall 
produce that health, then we must give ourselves to Him 
entirely, absolutely ; and to do this will divide households, 
will separate between parents and children, between brothers 
and sisters. Our Lord was simply stating the fact, and 
there is no need for me to argue it. He came to send a 
sword ; and He has done it through all the centuries, He 
is doing it still. There are those who know the keenness 
of it ; instead of peace, there is indeed a sword. His mis- 
sion was one of separation in order to the creation of the 
new, pure, strong, ransomed society, for the accomplish- 
ment of His purposes in the economy of God. 

The last of these four outstanding declarations taken 
alone is full of beauty, but we miss the true light unless we 
consider it in its relation to the story of the man who had 
lain for so long in the porches of the Bethesda pool. Christ 
healed him, and when the rulers criticized Jesus for making 
the man break Sabbath, our Lord answered, u My Father 
worketh even until now, and I work ; " ' and the discussion 
ran to an argument, a defense, an explanation ; and in that 
connection this word occurred, " I am come in My Fa- 
ther's name." 2 For the meaning of this word then, we 
1 John v. 17. ' Ibid., v. 43. 



His Saving Mission 163 

need the story itself, and His interpretation of what He did 
when He healed the man ; and we need that interpretation 
in the light of the criticism which was offered. 

This man, for eight and thirty years, had been in the grip 
of an infirmity, until he had lost heart and lost hope, and 
had become despondently contented, — if that be not a con- 
tradiction of terms — with his condition. Jesus, passing 
through, looked at him, and said, Do you wish to be made 
whole ? And the man replied, Sir, — and I never can read 
it without feeling there was a touch of protest in it, as 
though he had said, Sir, why do you ask me a question like 
that ? — When the water is troubled, and I try to reach it, 
some man is in front of me, and I have no man that can 
put me in. What did that answer mean ? It surely was 
as if he had said, Of course I wish to be made whole, but 
I never can be made whole. Why do you mock my im- 
potence ? It is too late, and I have to be content to live 
upon the almsgiving of others, with no hope of healing. 
Then came the word of Christ to him, " Take up thy bed, 
and walk." And he arose and took up his bed and walked ; 
a material miracle with a moral value ; but the blind men 
about Him could not interpret the moral value, and they 
charged Christ with violating God's law by making that 
man break the Sabbath. Christ said in effect : You charge 
Me with breaking Sabbath, but God's Sabbath was broken 
by man's sin, and God can have no Sabbath while men lie 
like this one, broken and bruised. " My Father worketh," 
was His answer to the charge that He had broken Sabbath ; 
" My Father worketh " was an unveiling of the Divine dis- 
content in the presence of all human limitation and suffer- 
ing ; of the restlessness of God until man gets his rest ; 
u My Father worketh . . . and I work." Then pres- 
ently and in direct connection He said, " I am come in My 
Father's name." Thus was the purpose of God unveiled 



164 The Teaching of Christ 

in the action of Jesus; God's determination to make rest 
for man, and His willingness to give up His rest in order 
to do so. I know the figure halts. I know it is imperfect. 
Incarnation itself is imperfect as a full unveiling of Deity ; 
but it is perfect in that it meets the need of humanity. 
There is a sense in which it is unthinkable that God can 
have His rest interfered with ; but there is a deeper sense, 
a profounder sense, in which it is true that God is not im- 
passive, or indifferent in the presence of human pain and 
sorrow and agony. " My Father worketh." ' " I am come 
in My Father's name." 2 Jesus came in the name of God 
Who will never be able to rest, save as men find rest in 
health and holiness, and the realization of all the highest 
purposes of their being. 

The central word in each of these declarations is the 
statement, " I am come," indicating as it does His preexist- 
ence ; and that, in connection with the affirmations made, 
reveals that the ultimate purpose of His mission was the 
establishment of righteousness ; the immediate purpose of 
His mission was the redemption of the man who has failed, 
who is broken, who has been flung out upon the world's 
scrap heap ; the necessary processional purpose of His mis- 
sion was the separation between men, in order to the crea- 
tion of a great society ; and the fundamental purpose of His 
mission was that of the carrying out of the enterprises of God. 

And now reverently let us turn to the second consider- 
ation ; the words of Jesus spoken as to the method by which 
He will establish righteousness ; redeem the sinner; creating 
in the process, not peace but conflict ; until at last the heart 
of God shall find rest. All His words on this subject were 
uttered after Caesarea Philippi. After Peter had made his 
great confession concerning the person of the Lord, He 
began to speak to His disciples definitely and plainly about 
1 John v. 17. 2 Ibid., v. 43. 



His Saving Mission 165 

His Cross. Both Matthew, Mark, and Luke give the ac- 
count of the confession of Peter, and they all record that 
immediately following that confession He began this teach- 
ing. Matthew and Mark use the actual word " began " ; 
Luke does not use that word, but his placing of the com- 
mencement at that point is quite distinct. 

When He thus began to talk about His Cross the Lord 
employed a very significant expression as He declared that 
He must, — that is the key word ; Mark employs it, Mat- 
thew uses it, Luke reports it, — they all quote Him as de- 
claring that He must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and 
the third day be raised again. The whole of this statement 
is necessary to an understanding of the Lord's meaning. 
It is not accurate to say that His foretelling of the Cross 
was merely the result of spiritual intuition, and His must, 
the expression of a fine heroism by which He yielded to 
death. His was not the heroism of One consenting to be a 
victim, for He never spoke of the Cross without speaking of 
the resurrection which lay beyond ; it was rather the heroism 
of a determined Victor, Who was moving through a dark 
and awful process, towards a bright and glorious victory. 
He never spoke of the Cross without the resurrection ; but 
when He first spoke of these He used this word must. Thus 
He declared that it was necessary that He should go to Jeru- 
salem. It was in the economy of His mission that He went. 
The Cross was no accident. On the day of Pentecost, 
Peter, in the first Spirit-taught exposition of the Cross, said, 
" Him, being delivered up by the determinate counsel anil 
foreknowledge of God, ye by the hand of lawless men did 
crucify and slay." 1 Man's guilt was patent, but behind It, 
around it, overruling it, was something mightier than man's 
guilt ; it was God's grace. " Him, being delivered by the 
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God." The must 

1 Acts ii. 23. 



166 The Teaching of Christ 

of Jesus was not the outcome of His sense that circumstances 
were against Him. The must of Jesus was the expression 
of His sense that He was still working with His Father, 
and cooperating with the purposes of God. 

Now in the light of that must at Caesarea Philippi, let us 
read the four outstanding words in which He declared the 
method by which He would accomplish His purpose. The 
first is to be found in the Gospel according to John : " I 
came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." l 

The second is in the Gospel according to Luke : " I came 
to cast fire upon the earth ; and what will I " — what do I de- 
sire — " if," and it is the sigh of desire, not a supposition — 
" Oh, that it were already kindled. But I have a baptism to 
be baptized with ; and how am I straitened till it be accom- 
plished ! " 2 

The third is in the Gospel according to Matthew : " The 
Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, 
and to give His life a ransom for many." 3 

The final one is again found in the Gospel according to 
John: "Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? 
Father, save Me from this hour ? But for this cause came 
I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name. There came 
therefore a voice out of heaven, saving, I have both glorified 
it, and will glorify it again." 4 

In these great words in which He referred to His coming, 
He also revealed the method by which He will accomplish 
the great purposes already considered. 

In the first of these statements He was speaking of the 
sheep; fleeced, wounded, harried by wolves; and He said, 
" I am the good Shepherd : the good Shepherd layeth down 
His life for the sheep " 5 and again, " I lay down My life 
for the sheep." This was not a repetition, but the revela- 

1 John x. 10. 3 Matt. xx. 28. b Ibid., x. n. 

3 Luke xii. 49, 50. 4 John xii. 27, 28. 6 Ibid., x. 15. 



His Saving Mission 167 

tion of a twofold fact. The first was figurative ; the good 
Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep ; that is, He dies for 
them ; He grapples with the wolf in order that He may 
protect the sheep ; and He dies in the struggle, but He slays 
the wolf. But in the second affirmation the figure is tran- 
scended, the truth emerges into a larger presentation than the 
figure can contain. The figure is exhausted when the good 
Shepherd of human life has fought the wolf and slain it, dy- 
ing Himself in the struggle. But our good Shepherd says, 
" No one taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. 
I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it 
again." * I will not merely slay the wolf in My dying, but 
I will give My life to the sheep in order that they may be 
able to overcome all the wolves that may attack them. What 
exposition can there be of such poetry as this ? It is poetry 
itself transcended by the fact of the infinite grace and glory 
which it attempts to express. The Master came to fulfill 
law and prophecy, to establish a life in men which shall meet 
the Divine requirement ; but men need a dynamic, and He 
gives them His life, that the forces of His purity may operate 
in them ; but He could only do this through death. Jesus 
never attempted to explain the atonement. There is not a 
single passage in all His teaching that will help us if we are 
seeking for a theory. 

But the fact He declared : 

" He death by dying slew, 
He hell in hell laid low ; 
Bowed to the grave, destroyed it so." 

By the giving of His life He declared that He would destroy 
the wolf, and energize the sheep. 

Let us turn to the great soliloquy in Luke. I describe it 
thus because it breaks in upon the continuity of the narrative. 

1 John x. 18. 



168 The Teaching of Christ 

It was a great heart-burst. " I came to cast fire upon the 
earth ; " fire, the cleansing agent, superior to, and mightier 
than water. Water can only cleanse superficial things. Fire 
will penetrate and cleanse thoroughly. " I came to cast fire 
on the earth/' It will be for the cleansing of sinful natures. 
How can it be done ? " I have a baptism to be baptized 
with ; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished ! " I 
cannot scatter this fire ; I cannot fulfill My redeeming pur- 
pose in the experience of a man, save by the way of My own 
passion-baptism ! Again here is no explanation of profound 
secrets, no attempt to unveil the mystery of a method deep as 
the very nature of God ; but a clear declaration that only 
by the way of a passion-baptism could He fulfill His 
purpose. 

The third declaration was : " The Son of Man came not 
to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a 
ransom for many." He was charging His disciples that they 
were to enter into new social relationships, that they were to 
minister to one another, that they were to help each other 
within the economy of His new spiritual Kingdom. Then 
He inspired them by His own example as He said, " The Son 
of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister"; 
and added to the words of inspiration the revealing word, 
" and to give His life a ransom for many." Thus He brings 
the gift of peace into the new family and the new Kingdom, 
by the giving of His life, and the inspiration of that giving 
in the lives of other men, as in answer to it they are led to 
a similar ministry. 

The last of these words was uttered in a great triumph of 
prayer. Jesus was under the very shadow of His Cross, and 
the Greek enquirers came, asking to see Him. When Philip 
brought them to Him our Lord said, "Except a grain of wheat 
fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone ; but if 
it die, it beareth much fruit. . . . Now is My soul 



His Saving Mission 169 

troubled ; and what shall I say ? Father, save Me from this 
hour?" He did not say that. What then did He say ? 
"But for this cause came I unto this hour." It was the 
hour of darkness, the blackness was gathering about His soul, 
the horror of the coming passion was filling His heart, "What 
shall I say ? " Father, deliver Me from it ? No, " Father, 
glorify Thy name." It was the triumph of One coming 
into the ultimate cooperation with His Father. The last 
word in the proclamation of purpose was " I am come in My 
Father's name." The last word in the unveiling of the 
method was " Father, glorify Thy name." The answer 
came in thunder, " I have both glorified it, and will glorify 
it again." And then, the Cross before Him in determina- 
tion, He uttered the great words of triumph, " Now is the 
judgment of this world : now shall the prince of this world be 
cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw 
all men unto Myself." This was His final word concern- 
ing the method whereby He will establish righteousness, 
redeem sinning men, and fulfill the purposes of God. 

In the correlation of these declarations of purpose, and 
revelations of method, we have the teaching of Christ con- 
cerning His saving mission. The gift of life through death 
makes possible the fulfillment of ethical purpose. The gift of 
fire through death makes possible the redemption of sinners, 
and the healing of souls spiritually sick. The gift of peace 
through death is at once the inspiration and the realization 
thereof. The purpose of God realized through the sorrows 
of death is the way by which His glory is ensured. 

What, then, are the conclusions to be drawn from this 
statement of Christ's own teaching concerning His mission ? 
First, that He came to cure moral malady through death. 
Secondly, that He came to enable men to live life in har- 
mony with the will of God, and in the fulfillment of His 
purpose by the bestowment of life out of death. Thirdly, 



] 70 The Teaching of Christ 

that He came to separate by a sword in order to establish a 
final peace, through His death. Finally and inclusively that 
He came to cooperate with God, and to glorify the name 
of God through death. Thus He interpreted the purpose 
and method of His mission in the world. 



IV. HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY 



" From that time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Repent ye ; for the 
Kingdom of heaven is at hand." — Matthew iv. 17. 



« Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye 
believe on Him Whom He hath sent." — John vi. 2g. 

" If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, 
whether it be of God, or whether I speak from Myself." — vii. 17. 



IV 
HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY 

Our subject presupposes those of the two previous chap- 
ters and completes their teaching. 

We now proceed to enquire what Jesus taught as to hu- 
man responsibility in view of His Saviourhood. 

There are certain preliminary matters which it is well we 
should bear in mind. The first is that of the general 
methods of Christ's teaching. As we read these Gospel 
stories, and listen to Him, sometimes speaking to vast multi- 
tudes who were gathered about Him, sometimes speaking to 
smaller companies of critical and hostile men who were 
challenging Him, sometimes speaking to companies yet 
smaller, companies of loyal souls, instructing them in the 
things of the Kingdom of God ; we find under all these dif- 
ferent circumstances a consistent method. We may describe 
that method briefly as being threefold, that of annunciation, 
application, and appeal.. 

His teaching was always that of the annunciation of truth. 
In the midst of the final hours, when challenged by the 
Roman procurator as to His Kingship, He made a signifi- 
cant claim : " To this end have I been born, and to this end 
am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto 
the truth." ' 

He never announced a truth, however, merely that men 
might apprehend it intellectually. He always applied truth 
to immediate circumstances, and to actual needs. 

Moreover He never rested content with an annunciation 
and an application. There always rang through His teach- 

1 John xviii. 37. 
173 



174 The Teaching of Christ 

ing the note of appeal, as He called men to obey the things 
that He said. 

All of which may be stated in another way by declaring 
that through all the teaching of Christ there is discoverable 
an ethical purpose. He taught men, in order that they 
might be obedient to truth ; and that by their obedience to it, 
they might be conformed to the will and the purpose of 
God. Consequently it is also noticeable in the teaching of 
Jesus that His objective was the will. His avenues of ap- 
proach were those of the emotion and the intellect. He 
made a clear statement of truth that might be apprehended of 
the intellect, and employed such methods of statement as 
would make their appeal to the emotional nature, sometimes 
in the thunder of awful denunciations, and sometimes in the 
wooing winsomeness of infinite tenderness. But He never 
attempted merely to satisfy the questioning of the intellect, 
or merely to move the emotion. These were but avenues of 
approach, and He was forevermore storming the central 
citadel of human personality, the will ; calling men by 
thunder and by tears, by clear intellectual statement and 
emotional appeal, to obedience; claiming that there must be 
the submission of the will to the truths declared. 

From the mass of His teaching I select three outstanding 
and familiar statements which reveal the nature of His ap- 
peal, and enable us to understand His teaching concerning 
human responsibility. 

It must be remembered that our Lord's ministry was exer- 
cised, not in the midst of men and women who, knowing 
truth, and being obedient to it, were like the truth, and of 
the truth. His ministry was exercised in the midst of men 
unlike the truth, disobedient to the revelation, and His 
appeal was made to those who had failed. That appeal is 
focused in the three passages selected. 

The first is recorded' by Matthew and Mark, as consti- 



Human Responsibility 175 

tuting the key-note of His more public ministry. u From 
that time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Repent ye ; 
for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." ' 

The second was spoken in Jerusalem in the midst of 
hostile criticism, when crowds were following Him, as He 
Himself said, because He had fed them with material bread. 
He rebuked them for the motive of their following, sought 
to lift them on to higher levels of consideration, and conse- 
quently of conduct ; charged them not to work for the bread 
that perishes, but to work for the bread of life. They an- 
swered His charge by the question, u What must we do, that 
we may work the works of God ? " and to that enquiry, in the 
midst of that critical atmosphere, He replied, " This is the 
work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom He hath sent." * 

The third of the three passages is found, as to its place in 
the Gospel, in the chapter immediately following, but as to 
its chronological place in the ministry of Christ, at a later 
period. When He had come up to Jerusalem for that mem- 
orable feast of tabernacles, and they were charging Him 
with bearing testimony to Himself, challenging Him as to 
the truth of the Divine authority of His mission, He uttered 
these very significant words : u If any man willeth to do His 
will, he shall know of the teaching whether it be of God ; " 3 
and I emphasize in that way because I know no passage in 
the New Testament that has been*made the basis of more 
interesting, and yet unwarranted application than this. 
Many things are said in exposition of these words which in 
themselves are quite true, but which are not in the meaning 
of the words. Jesus did not say, If you do the will you shall 
know the doctrine, all interpreters and expositors notwith- 
standing. He said, " If any man willeth to do His will, he 
shall know of the teaching whether it be of God." 

In these three statements, taken out of the midst of our 
1 Matt. iv. 17. Mark i. 15. ' ' John vi. 28, 29. 3 John vii. 17J 



176 The Teaching of Christ 

Lord's ministry, we have a revelation of human responsi- 
bility in the presence of Himself as the Revealer of the will 
of God, and as the Saviour of men. In the first we find a 
revelation of the fundamental necessity, repentance towards 
the Kingdom of God ; in the second, a revelation of re- 
sponsibility created by Himself as the mediating Opportu- 
nity, faith in Himself; in the third, His most luminous and 
wonderful statement as to the responsibility of experimental 
proof; that men are to prove the Divinity of His teaching, 
the Divine authority of Himself and His mission, by putting 
Him to the test by obedience. 

Let us examine these declarations a little more particularly. 
First we have His statement of fundamental necessity in the 
words, " Repent ye; for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." 

With these words the herald John had commenced his 
ministry ; and when he was arrested and imprisoned, and his 
voice was silenced, then began Jesus to preach, and to say, 
Repent. That in itself is suggestive. Men may silence a 
voice by imprisoning a prophet, but they cannot end the 
ministry of truth. Another voice will take up the same 
word, and now no longer the voice of a herald, but the 
voice of the King. 

The implications of this great word are two, those of the 
rights of God, and the rebellion of man. 

There was a clear indication, both in the first word of 
John and in the first word of Jesus, of the direction of re- 
pentance ; it must be repentance towards the Kingdom of 
God. Thus at the commencement of His ministry, our 
Lord insisted upon the rights of God. The deepest pas- 
sion of His heart was a passion for the doing of God's will 
in His own life, and the establishment of God's Kingdom 
throughout the world ; He insisted upon the rights of God 
over individual life in its entirety, over social life in all its 
inter-relationships, over national life in its purposes and its 



Human Responsibility 177 

policies. The vision ever flaming before His eyes was that 
of the Kingship of God, the rights of God over all the af- 
fairs of men. 

The second implication of this key word of the Master's 
preaching is that man is not living within that kingdom 
consciously, obediently ; that he is out of harmony with the 
will of God. Our Lord charged the men of His own age 
with having wrong conceptions, which issued in wrong con- 
duct, which resulted in wrong character. He stood in the 
midst of the men of His own age, and He said to them in effect : 
The fundamental necessity, if I am to exercise My power as 
Saviour, and to accomplish My mission in the world, is that 
men shall turn to the Kingdom of God. His call essentially 
was and is, that men shall enthrone the exiled God. 

That is the first note of human responsibility. It is 
revolutionary, calling for upheaval and change in all the de- 
partments of human life. It is radical in that it deals with 
the inspirational sources of action, rather than with the ex- 
ternal activities. It is restorative in that it calls man to re- 
turn to the true order of his own life and of his own being. 
It is the key-note. 

There is no Gospel in this. John had no Gospel to 
preach ; he preached repentance. But no man is ready for 
the Gospel until he has heard this ; and no man can re- 
ceive the benefit which the Gospel provides until he has 
obeyed this fundamental word. If there has been a lack in 
the evangelistic preaching of recent years, it has been that 
this note has been forgotten, that in bringing men face to 
face with their responsibility to Jesus Christ, we have not 
commenced where He commenced, where the apostles com- 
menced after Pentecost, where every great revival of religion 
has commenced, with the need of repentance, the need that 
is founded upon the rights of God in individual, social, and 
national human life. 



178 The Teaching of Christ 

This, then, is the first note of human responsibility, re- 
pentance towards the Kingdom of God. Repentance is 
the change of the mind, the thinking over again ; and the 
thinking in this definite direction. In this particular word 
that our Lord made use of, there is no suggestion of sorrow, 
of tears, or of penitence. There was long controversy be- 
tween the Protestant and the Roman theologians as to the 
difference between resipiscentia and panetentia ; Catholic 
theologians insisting that what is necessary is sorrow for 
the past ; Protestant theologians asserting that the essential 
thing is the change of mind towards the Kingdom of God. 
There ^can be no doubt in the light of the New Testament 
that the latter were right. There will be sorrow for sin, 
but it is not necessary to initial repentance ; and there are 
men and women who for twenty, thirty, and forty years, 
have been Christians, whose sorrow for sin to-day is deeper 
than it was at the beginning of their Christian life. More- 
over there may be sorrow for sin without repentance. People 
may mourn and wail over sin, who never definitely change 
the mind, and set the life towards the Kingdom of God by 
making that Kingdom the master conception in everything. 

That a man must enthrone at the centre of his life the 
God^Who has been exiled therefrom is the first note in 
Christ's teaching concerning human responsibility in the 
presence of Himself and His mission as Saviour. 

Then we turn to the next. Men asked Him, " What 
must we do, that we may work the works of God ? " and 
His reply was definite, " This is the work of God, that ye 
believe on Him Whom He hath sent." We are imme- 
diately impressed by the superlative nature of that claim. 
Jesus Christ stood confronting the men of light and learn- 
ing of His own age, and He said that the work of God was 
that they should believe on Him. He had rebuked them 
for the materialism of their thinking, and their passion, and 



Human Responsibility 179 

their motive, declaring that they had followed Him, not 
even because they saw the sign, but because they had been 
fed. He charged them to lift their life on to the higher 
and the spiritual plane, and to work for spiritual food, and they 
had said, What is the work of God ? Having called them to 
such high altitude and conception of life, He immediately 
said, This is the work of God that you believe on Me. 

Thus He stands before men as between them and God ; 
He calls men to the Kingdom, to repent towards the King- 
dom ; and when they come with enquiry as to how they 
are to do this, He answers, This is the work of God that 
you believe in Me. He claims in that word relation to the 
fundamental purpose of the Kingdom; that the King is 
revealed in Himself, that the Kingdom is revealed in Him- 
self; and that He is not merely the revelation of the King 
and the Kingdom, but the Administrator of the Kingdom. 
He was sent from God, not merely to show the glory of 
God, but to deal with the rebels, the sinners, the men who 
had forgotten the Kingdom, and insulted the Throne, and 
to deal with them for reconciliation and restoration. His 
call . is to belief in Himself; not to belief about Him, not 
to belief of any doctrine or theory of His Person. Not 
only is it true that men are not saved by holding a theory; 
it is equally true that He never on any single occasion made 
it necessary that a man should hold any theory concerning 
Him; but that men should believe in Him. That Greek 
preposition m, with the accusative, always signifies motion 
into; so that perhaps we should be nearer the word of 
Christ if we read, That you should believe into Him Whom 
He hath sent. That lifts belief far higher than the intel- 
lectual realm, making it a volitional act by which a man 
abandons himself to the truth of which he is convinced. 
There are men who question as to whether it is possible to 
choose their beliefs. There are senses in which it is not. 



180 The Teaching of Christ 

No man can choose a conviction. He can choose whether 
he will act upon a conviction. Conviction is necessary to 
faith ; but faith is more than conviction ; it is conviction 
followed. I recommend a very careful study of Professor 
James's essay on " The Will to Believe," * in its bearing 
on the fact perpetually insisted upon in the Bible that be- 
lief is more than conviction, it is the activity that proceeds 
out of conviction, and harmonizes with conviction. The 
unbelief which robs a man of peace, and power, and pre- 
vents him coming into living association with Christ is not 
intellectual doubt or intellectual difficulty. The unbelief 
that shuts a man away from Christ is that man's refusal to 
act upon the conviction that has gripped his soul. And 
consequently the belief that saves is an action of the will, a 
decision to act upon a conclusion reached. That is the 
work of God. It is the initial work of God, because Christ 
was the Sent of God, God's new point of departure in hu- 
man history; and as men accept that fact and yield to 
Him, they are working the work of God. The Kingdom 
of God is revealed in Christ, as to its King, and as to its 
laws ; and is administered by Christ through the mystery 
of His work for saving men ; and as men believe into Him 
and yield to Him, they work the work of God. That is 
the action that brings men into touch with all the redemp- 
tive forces which He has provided for their remaking. 

The final words meet a difficulty which is often presented, 
and our Lord was perfectly clear about it. It has to do 
with the question of proof. Jesus was in Jerusalem, and 
the men of light and leading, who in this were quite sincere, 
had listened to Him, and had said, Whence hath this man 
the letters, the grammata, never having learned ? They 
recognized the note of the schools of learning, and they 
said, How did He obtain it ? They were questioning His 
1 " The Will to Believe," First Essay. 



Human Responsibility 18 1 

authority, and found themselves face to face with a scholastic 
problem. To that enquiry He replied : " My teaching is 
not Mine, but His that sent Me. If any man willeth to do 
His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of 
God, or whether I speak from Myself." If with all rever- 
ence I may change the words of Christ, in an attempt to 
interpret the spirit of them, He said : You men who are 
trying to solve the mystery of the grammata which you have 
detected in My teaching, hear this ; you have been listen- 
ing, not to human wisdom, but to eternal truth, which God 
has given Me to speak to men. If you are face to face 
with difficulty about Me, then put what I say to the test of 
doing it ; and if you will thus obey the thing I say, even 
though you are in intellectual difficulty about Me, you will 
find that the thing I say is of God, and not of Myself. 

This is a supreme word. This is Christ's challenge to 
all men, men of scholarly attainments, men of intellectual 
difficulties, men who are holding aloof from the Christian 
fact because they cannot place the Christian Saviour. To 
all such He says, Postpone your discussion concerning My 
Person ; do what I tell you ; and in the doing you will dis- 
cover whether what I say is Divine or human. In effect 
Christ says, I am content to abide by that proof in the case 
of the human soul. 

No man has ever accepted that challenge of Jesus Christ 
honestly, and yielded himself to it completely, without the 
issue being that presently, — not immediately perhaps, for 
the spectres of the mind are not laid immediately — but pres- 
ently, the man so obeying has to come back to the Christ, 
saying with Thomas, " My Lord and my God." * Only 
there must be no trifling with the condition. There must 
be obedience to the things He says. What is the first ? 
Repent towards the Kingdom of God. And I will content 

1 John xx. 28. 



182 The Teaching of Christ 

myself with that. Christ stands confronting men and He 
says, Your conceptions are wrong. They are self-centred, 
materialized, earthly, mean. Change your mind. Put God 
upon the throne, believe in Him, seek His will, conform 
your life volitionally to His holiness ; repent towards His 
government. And then He, representing God, calls men 
to trust Him, to let Him lead them step by step, to let Him 
interpret to them the meaning of the will of God; He asks 
them to receive from Him, with the humility of children, 
grace that will enable them to obey. 
Do you say 

" Dim tracts of time divide ? " 

Then I ask you, 

" Can time undo what once was true ? " 

In this very hour, face the Christ, and say, I cannot make up 
my mind about Thee, O Christ. I am not certain whether 
these theologians and schoolmen and expositors are right ; 
but I am coming after Thee, to put Thy teaching to the 
test of obedience. If you will do so, then I shall meet you 
on some fair morning in this world or the next, and you will 
say, I proved Him by my obedience, and at last I crowned 
Him my Lord and my God. 

Repentance towards God ; faith towards the Lord Jesus 
Christ ; and that obedience which is the issue of repentance 
towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ ; are, 
according to the teaching of Christ, the conditions upon 
fulfillment of which men may appropriate the perfect salva- 
tion of the perfect Saviour. 



V. SANCTITY 



" For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the 
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into 
the Kingdom of heaven." — Matthew v. 20. 

"Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. 
Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of 
them : else ye have no reward with your Father which is in heaven." — 
v. 48-vi. 1. 

• •••• •••• 

" Father, the hour is come ; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify 
Thee." 

" I manifested Thy name unto the men whom Thou gavest Me out of 
the world : Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to me ; and they have 
kept Thy word. Now they know that all things whatsoever Thou hast 
given Me are from Thee : for the words which Thou gavest Me I have 
given unto them ; and they received them, and knew of a truth that I came 
forth from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send Me." 

" Sanctify them in the truth : Thy word is truth." — John xvii. 1,6-8, if. 



V 

SANCTITY 

Our theme is that of the teaching of Christ concerning 
sanctity. Our Lord had been speaking to His disciples in 
the upper room in view of His departure, giving them those 
teachings which we now speak of as the Paschal discourses. 
Ceasing to teach, He began to pray ; and in this seventeenth 
chapter of John we have the words of that great Paschal 
prayer, offered in anticipation of the Cross. They are a 
revelation of His purpose for the men whom He had been 
teaching, and who were gathered about Him. He prayed 
here, as He ever prayed, alone, while yet in their presence. 
They were sinning men, some of the men whom He had 
come to seek and to save. He was to them the Saviour ; 
not that they at the moment perfectly understood the mean- 
ing of His mission, or fully apprehended all the results 
thereof; but that He stood to them in His own purpose and 
in His own power, in that sacred relationship. If they 
were sinning men they were also men who had fulfilled the 
responsibilities which He had revealed. They were men 
who had repented towards the Kingdom of God, and men 
who had believed in Him ; thev did not understand His 
teaching perfectly, had no final truth in their mind concern- 
ing the mystery of His Person, and were certainly quite 
ignorant of that passion towards which His face was set, for 
they were in rebellion against the very thought thereof. 
Nevertheless, they had believed in Him, and by that belief 
had appropriated values far greater than they themselves did 
know ; and He prayed for these men, and in the brief words 
of this particular verse we have the ultimate word express- 

185 



186 The Teaching of Christ 

ive of His desire for them, " Sanctify them in the truth : 
Thy word is truth." l 

Sanctification, — or preferably because not so common, — 
the word sanctity, already used, is the ultimate word in salva- 
tion. We have been considering the teaching of our Lord 
on these co-related themes j sin as constituting the need for 
salvation ; salvation as the supply of that need in the 
economy of God ; salvation interpreted by our Lord's use of 
the word ; salvation as the purpose of His mission in the 
world ; salvation as to the human responsibilities which this 
provision creates. 

Now we come to consider the issue of salvation, which is 
sanctity. That is the ultimate word concerning salvation. 
If I may borrow the great words of the Roman letter ; — 
justification, sanctification, and glorification, — I would re- 
mind you that justification is the root; glorification will be 
the ultimate fruit ; while the supreme experience of the 
present life, which is in itself a fulfillment of those condi- 
tions whereby the root shall proceed to the ultimate fruit, is 
that of sanctity. The will of our Lord for His people is 
that they may live the life of sanctity, that they may know 
the experience of sanctification. These words of Jesus 
constitute a brief petition in which we have our Lord's 
teaching concerning sanctity suggestively revealed, when the 
petition is interpreted by the context of the whole prayer. 
He prayed that these men might be sanctified in the truth, 
and Fie immediately revealed what He meant by His own 
term, " the truth," as He said, " Thy Word is truth." We 
are led therefore to enquire what He meant when He said, 
" Thy Word." If we have the interpretation of the term 
" the truth " in the term " Thy Word," then we enquire 
what He meant, when in that great prayer under the 
shadow of the Cross, amid the silence of the consecrated 

1 John xvii. 17. 



Sanctity 187 

hour, He spoke of the Word of God. If we go back to the 
earlier part of the prayer we shall find our answer. It is re- 
corded that He said, " I manifested Thy name unto the men 
whom Thou gavest Me out of the world : Thine they were, 
and Thou gavest them to Me ; and they have kept Thy 
word." ' We immediately recognize the connection be- 
tween the opening statement of that verse, and the closing 
one; between "I have manifested Thy name " and "They 
have kept Thy word." When He spoke therefore of the 
truth, and defined it as being the Word of God, He was, 
according to the interpretation of His own uttered words, 
referring to that manifestation of God which He had made, 
and which He described as the manifestation of the Name. 

And yet again we have further light in the statement : 
" The words which Thou gavest Me I have given unto them ; 
and they received them, and knew of a truth that I came forth 
from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send Me." 2 

In these two statements we have two expressions of our 
Lord, arresting our attention, and enabling us to understand 
His thought concerning sanctity. He spoke of the Word of 
God, and when He so spoke He referred to a manifestation 
of the name of God, which He said He had given to these 
men. This is the great word with which we are familiar 
through all the writings of John, and indeed through all our 
New Testament, the word logos, signifying the unified and 
complete revelation of God made through Christ Himself. 
That, fundamentally and inclusively, is the truth in which 
He prays that men may be sanctified. In the second state- 
ment we have not the same expression, but another carry- 
ing another thought : My sayings, that is, such sayings as 
make application of essential truth in local particulars. If 
when He spoke of the Word He was referring to the unified 
and inclusive truth ; when He spoke of the sayings, He was 
1 John xvii. 6. 2 John xvii. 8. 



l88 The Teaching of Christ 

referring to the words which He had uttered in application 
to certain human needs. 

We shall understand our Lord's thoughts concerning 
sanctity in proportion as we L know the truth to which He 
referred when He prayed that we might be sanctified in 
the truth. For that purpose we shall consider that matter 
under the twofold division of the Word as the manifestation 
of the name ; and the sayings as the application of truth, in- 
cluded in the Word, to the needs of men. 

The manifestation of the name producing the right atti- 
tude to God issues in sanctity of *being, which is holiness. 
The revelation of duty producing right attitude to men 
issues in sanctity of doing, which is righteousness. Sanc- 
tity is holiness and righteousness, two matters which cannot 
be severed ; two matters which I sometimes fear we are in 
danger of severing. On one hand, I hear a great deal 
about holiness, with little reference to righteousness. On 
the other hand, I hear a great deal about the necessity for 
righteousness, with very little reference to holiness. But it 
is impossible that there ever should be righteousness which 
is not the outcome of holiness ; and it is equally im- 
possible that there should be any holiness which is not 
expressed in righteousness. Holiness is rectitude of char- 
acter. Righteousness is rectitude of conduct. Both the 
ideas are related, and are expressed most perfectly in the 
word sanctity. 

Our Lord in this great prayer uttered His ultimate de- 
sire for the sinning men who by faith in Him as Saviour 
enter into new relationship with God. His desire for 
them is, that they may be sanctified in the truth. We 
turn first of all to the study^of sanctity of character by the 
Name ; and secondly to sanctity of conduct by the sayings, 
or moral system, which our Lord has given to us. 

We commence then with this first conception of truth, 



Sanctity 1 89 

u Thy word is truth." * u I manifested Thy name unto the 
men." 2 Now to understand this we must take a larger outlook, 
and remind ourselves of the method and system of this Gospel 
according to John. It is not a life story, a biography. It is 
exactly what John declared it to be, the gathering together of 
certain incidents, of signs in the way of works ; of teaching 
in the form of words; which in their relationship to each other 
serve to demonstrate the fact that Jesus was the Son of God. 
When that is borne in mind we shall discover at the 
commencement of the Gospel a key to the interpretation of 
the revelation which Jesus gave to us, and which John 
made clear in the process of his book : " The law was 
given by Moses ; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." 3 
John was looking back to a past economy, in order that he 
might draw attention to the new economy. He was re- 
minding those for whom he wrote his Gospel of a previous 
revelation, of how the law came, — the preposition " by " is 
a very unfortunate one, — " through Moses " ; and how — for 
there was a new revelation, not contradicting the old, but 
fulfilling it, explaining it, leading out its essential values to 
ultimate perfection, — " grace and truth came through Jesus 
Christ." I have referred to that key word in order that we 
may go back to the previous revelation. " The law came 
by Moses." What was the first word in that law ? Not 
a moral enactment, but a revelation of God. When after 
eighty years of preparation, forty years in Egypt, and forty 
years in the magnificence of the desert, Moses came to the 
hour of crisis, and was called to his great work, he was 
called by the mystic symbolism of a bush that burned with 
fire and was not consumed, and by a revelation of the God 
Who dwelt in the bush. As this man Moses, of reverent 
habit and demeanour, who had learned deep secrets from 
Nature during the forty years of his shepherd life, drew 
1 John xvii. 17. * Ibid., xvii. 6. 8 lbid. % i. 17. 



190 The Teaching of Christ 

near to the unusual sight of a bush burning with fire and 
yet not consumed, a voice said to him, " Draw not nigh 
hither : put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place 
whereon thou standest is holy ground. " 1 Then God re- 
vealed Himself to him by a name ; and this is the name, a 
name which is an announcement of revelation, imperfect, in- 
complete, " I am " ; and as it appeared as though something 
were to be added to the essential word, by way of revelation, 
the word recoiled upon itself. " I am, that I am." 2 The 
law came through the man who had received that revelation. 
Now I take up this Gospel according to John, and hav- 
ing read that key word, " The law came by Moses ; grace 
and truth came by Jesus Christ," I find that its supreme 
value is not its revelation of an ethical code, but its revela- 
tion of a name, its revelation of how through this new 
Messenger of the covenant, the very Son of God Himself, 
the name was proclaimed ; and this prayer of Jesus bears 
witness to the truth of that assertion, for in the final pray- 
ing He said to His Father, " I have manifested Thy name." 
What then is the name ? That name is revealed in the course 
of the discourses of Jesus, some of them careful and con- 
tinued, some of them fragmentary and incidental, in which 
we find great words, characterized at once by sublimity and 
simplicity. The words to which I refer are those in which 
He took again the word that had been spoken incompletely 
from the splendour of the burning bush, " I AM," and com- 
pleted the revelation, " I am the Bread of life," 3 " I am the 
light of the world," 4 " I am the Door," 5 " I am the good 
Shepherd," 6 "lam the resurrection, and the life," 7 " I am 
the way, and the truth, and the life," 8 " I am the true Vine." 9 
Thus He linked the sublime declaration of essential Being 

1 Exod. iii. 5. « Ibid., viii. 12. 7 Ibid., xi. 25. 

*Ibid., iii. 14. 6 Ibid., x. 9. 8 Ibid., xiv. 6. 

8 John vi. 35. 6 Ibid., x. II. » Ibid., xv. I. 



Sanctity 191 

to symbols so full of simplicity that all our children love 
them; the simplest words of human speech. u I am " ; 
the formula of the fundamental fact in the nature of Deity, 
that God is the Self-existent One, without beginning and 
without support other than that within His own Being ; 
Jesus linked to every-day symbols ; — bread, light, a door, a 
shepherd, a resurrection, a way, a vine. When His min- 
istry of teaching was complete, the One Who had uttered 
these words came into the presence of the Father, Who 
bears the essential and eternal name, and He said : " I have 
manifested Thy name unto these men." 

That manifestation may thus be summarized : 

" I am the bread of life." l God Himself as the very 
bread of life to man. 

" I am the light of the world ; " 2 God Himself as the 
illumination of man's life and pathway. 

"I am the door." 3 God Himself as the safety of His people. 

" I am the good Shepherd." 4 God Himself as the Love 
that cares for His people. 

u I am the resurrection and the life." 5 God Himself as 
the power by which men shall come to the consummation 
of purpose, and that in spite of the tragedy of death which 
results from their sin. 

" I am the way, and the truth, and the life ; " 6 God 
Himself as the very pathway or course in which men shall 
proceed in order to the fulfillment of that purpose. 

" I am the vine." 7 God Himself in intimate association 
with men, making their ministry, perfecting them, and 
enabling them to fulfill high and holy service. 

This was the sevenfold unveiling of the Name, and we 
at once discover its value to men. " I am the bread of 
life " — that is, ability at the disposal of men. " I am the 

1 John vi. 35. 3 Ibid., x. 9. 5 Ibid., xi. 25. ' Ibid., xv. I. 

9 Ibid., viii. 12. * Ibid., x. II. 6 Ibid., xiv. 6. 



192 The Teaching of Christ 

light" — that is, light or direction upon the pathway for 
men. " I am the door " — that is, love, perfect safety for 
men folded within the enclosure. " I am the good Shep- 
herd " — that is, care, and perfect rest for all hearts who trust 
in Him. " I am the resurrection " — that is, consummation, 
hope upon the darkest day of sorrow and bereavement. " I 
am the way, and the truth, and the life " 5 that is the course 
or the pathway of the pilgrimage, and consequent confidence 
even when the sun is blotted out of the heavens. " I am the 
true vine "; that is provision for ministry or service, discipline 
and purging, in order that much fruit may be brought forth. 

Such was the manifestation of the name, and in every case 
it was manifestation through Himself. In every case He 
was, in human guise and form and fashion, the unveiling of 
Deity ; and as men touched the warm flesh of the Son of Man 
they were thrilled by contact with God through the Son of 
God. And now at the end He said, " I have manifested Thy 
name." . . . "I have given them Thy word . . 
sanctify them in the truth : Thy word is truth." And of 
these men He said, " They have kept Thy word" — that is, 
they have kept it in view, they have observed it. 

What, then, is this picture of sanctity ? It is that of 
sanctity of character by the Name. This revelation pro- 
duces love in the heart of a believer ; love inspires obedience 
to the things revealed ; and, almost without consciousness at 
first, when the revelation has inspired love, and love has in- 
spired obedience, character becomes holy, because the life is 
adjusted to the truth concerning God. Holiness is not 
something which we can accurately designate by the imper- 
sonal pronoun it. Holiness of character is the attitude of 
life adjusted towards God in response to the revelation of 
the Name through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

We now pass to the second matter; sanctity of conduct 
in response to the sayings of Jesus» All the things to which 



Sanctity 193 

we have referred constitute the inclusive, unified, final reve- 
lation. He is the I am. Now out of the " I am " of Jesus 
came His sayings. Sayings are component parts of the 
whole, uttered for the instruction of individual lives, and 
social conditions, and immediate requirements. Christ in 
Himself is the full and final Truth; and even if He had 
never uttered a precept or a maxim, He had uttered all Truth 
in Himself. Nevertheless because of the frailty of human 
life and the finiteness of the human mind, He, the essential 
Truth, did speak in sayings, in maxims, in instructions ; and 
the supreme collection is to be found, not in John's Gospel, 
but in Matthew's, in the Manifesto. The Manifesto is less 
than the King ; all truth is not in the Sermon on the Mount ; 
but it is in the One Who uttered it. But the Sermon on the 
Mount must be uttered in order that I may be helped in my 
desire to obey the truth, the revelation of which has called me 
to the character of holiness, in order that I may express the 
character of holiness in the conduct of righteousness. He 
spoke in sayings, in words, in moral and ethical terms ; and if 
we would understand what the sayings of Jesus are, then we 
must take the whole of the Manifesto, and study it carefully. 

There are two master principles which occur in the midst 
of it : "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteous- 
ness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into 
the Kingdom of heaven " ; 1 " Ye therefore shall be perfect, 
as your heavenly Father is perfect." 2 Gathered around these 
two principles, are words of direct and immediate applica- 
tion ; conditioning individual life, and social life ; and re- 
vealing the moral standards of the Kingdom of God. 

Take the first. " Except your righteousness shall exceed 
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees." The con- 
textual interpretation shows that this is Tightness towards 
men and the affairs of this life, as the outcome of right re- 
1 Matt. v. 20. 2 Matt. v. 48. 



194 The Teaching of Christ 

lationship with God. The failure of the righteousness of 
scribes and Pharisees is revealed in an incidental saying of 
Jesus in the course of the Manifesto : " Take heed that ye 
do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them. ,, * 
That is an illuminative word, it is a startling word. Bring 
the ordinary morality of the world into the light of that word, 
and it stands condemned. Rightness, in order that we may 
be thought well of by men, is condemned in the Christian 
economy, not in itself, but as being relatively worthless. 
There is a vast amount of morality which is conditioned by 
the presence of the policeman ; and there is still a vaster 
amount of morality, on a higher level judged by the ordinary 
standards of human life, which is conditioned by pride. It 
is very valuable for all merely material purposes, but it is 
condemned. Honesty is the best policy ! But the man 
who is honest merely because it is politic to be honest is a 
rogue and a rascal at heart. That is the righteousness which 
the Lord condemned ; the righteousness which is done to be 
seen of men. What, then, is the righteousness that He in- 
culcated ? The righteousness which is done to be seen of 
God ; to please God whether men understand or not ; whether 
it shall please men or not His illustrations are as remarkable 
as His ideal. Alms are to be given, and prayer is to be offered 
privately ; and in fasting men are to go amid the crowds as 
though they had been to a feast, with brightness upon their 
faces. 

The second principle is expressed in the words, " Ye 
therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is per- 
fect." We must not interfere with that saying of Jesus. 
Some people are terribly afraid of criticism, higher or lower, 
but they indulge in it for themselves when they read that 
word. Let us interpret the text in relation to its context. 
When did He say it ? Immediately after He had said 

1 Matt. vi. i. 



Sanctity 195 

" Love your enemies. " The second principle of man's 
relationship to his fellow men is that he is to act towards 
them by likeness to God in love. The command is thus 
superlative, rather than minimized by its connection with 
the command to love our enemies. 

This is sanctity of conduct. Love for the Lord inspires 
us to receive His word, to accept it as authoritative, as final ; 
and the reception of the word thus expresses itself in obedi- 
ence, which is conduct love-impulsed. Thus righteousness 
is life adjusted to the truth about God, expressing itself in 
conduct towards men. 

" Sanctify them in the truth : Thy word is truth." This 
is the word which He gave; the manifestations of the Name, 
the sayings which He uttered; these constitute the moral code 
which men must obey. " Sanctify them in the truth." That 
was His prayer. And His estimate of sanctification is that 
holiness of character which results from the soul responsive 
to God as revealed in Christ ; and that righteousness of con- 
duct which grows from such character, the expression of 
relationship to God in a man's dealings with his fellow men. 

Finally this teaching was included in a prayer. He was 
praying for these men, and in the selfsame prayer He prayed 
for us. " Neither for these only do I pray, but for them 
also that believe on Me through their word." ' We are of 
that host and company who have believed through the 
apostolic word. The ultimate value of His prayer is found 
in the opening words, " Father, the hour is come." What 
hour ? And again there need not be and must not be any 
speculation. Throughout this Gospel according to John, 
that hour is constantly referred to. When His mother came 
to Him at the first sign, He said, " Woman, what have I to 
do with thee ? Mine hour is not yet come." 2 They could 
not arrest Him "because His hour was not yet come." 3 
1 John xvii. 20. 2 Ibid., ii. 4. * Ibid. t viii. 20. 



196 The Teaching of Christ 

At last, under the very shadow of the Cross, He said, 
" Father, the hour is come, glorify Thy Son, that the Son 
may glorify Thee." ! 

The hour was the hour of His passion. He was praying 
first for continued fellowship on the part of His Father with 
Himself in that ultimate darkness of the Cross, and the 
victory of the resurrection that lay beyond ; and in that 
prayer He uttered this petition. That first petition of the 
prayer was answered. His Father glorified Him by raising 
Him from among the dead, by completing the Exodus ; and 
now we can go through that answer of death and resurrec- 
tion in the person of our Lord Himself, and therefore sanc- 
tity is possible to us. Had there been none other than the 
manifestation of the name in a life, and the uttering of the 
law in precepts, I should have closed the book and should 
have said, The ideal is stupendous and marvellous, but I can 
never attain unto it. But the One Who manifested the 
name, the One Who uttered the moral code, was glorified 
in the mystery of death and resurrection ; and placed all His 
resources at the disposal of sinful men, that they might live 
the life of sanctity, that they might turn to God, and their 
life be adjusted to Him in holiness ; that in the power of 
such adjustment they might turn back to the affairs of every- 
day life, in office and mart and shop and household, and 
wherever they may be, to live towards men in love, in an- 
swer to the impulse of the life adjusted towards God, which 
is the life of righteousness. 

1 John xvii. 1. 



THE TEACHING OF CHRIST ON THE KINGDOM OF GOD 









References. 




CONNECTION. 


Phrases indicating Phases. 






















Matthew. 


Mark. 


Luke. 


John. 


First recorded References 


{ " Cannot see." 








ii!- 3 


Commencement of Preaching ... 


\ " Cannot enter into." 
"At hand." 


iv, 17 


i 1- 




iii. 5 


Course of Preaching 


" Good tidings of." 






iv. 43 






! "Theirs is." ("Yours is.") 


v. 3. 




(vl. 20J 




Manifesto 


J 'Least in . . . great in." 
/ "Enter into." 


v. 19 

V. 20 










I "Thy Kingdom come." 
" Seek ye.' T 


vi. S3 




(Xi. 2) 

(xii. 31) 




Course of Preaching 

Sending out of Twelve 


V" Enter into." 
"Sit down in . . . cast forth." 
"At hand." 


vii. 21 

viii. It. 12 

x. 7 




(xiii. 28, 29) 




Course of Preaching 


| " In the Kingdom." 
1 "Suffereth violence." 


xi. 1 1 
'xi.- 12 




vii. 28 






1 "Come upon yon." 


xii. 28 




(xi. 20) 






/"The mysteries." ("The mysteries.") 
" The word of the Kingdom. 


xiii. 11 


iv. II 


viii. 10 






xiii. io 










" So is (he Kingdom." [Seed growing secretly.] 




iv, 26 








" Is likened unto." [Darnel.] 


xiii. 34 










" Is hke unto." .[Grain of mustard.] 


xiii. 31 


iv. 30 


(xiii. 18) 




Special Instructions 


ii ii CLeaven.] 

, Sons of the Kingdom." = Thegood seed. 
" His Kingdom." = The Kingdom of the Son of Man. 
" The Kingdom of their Father.' 

" Is like unto." [Treasure.] 

[Man seeking pearls.] 

~ L " , »■ ,, f Net 'J 


xiii. 33 
xiii. 3? 

xiii. 41 
xiii. 43 
xiii. 44 
xiii. 45 
xiii. 47 




(xiii. 20) 




Confession of Peter 


V'The kingdom." [Householder.] 
"Keys of the Kingdom." 


xiii. 52 
xvl. 19 










" His Kingdom." ("The Kingdom of God.") (Ditto.) 


xvi. 28 


ix. 1 


ix. 27 






" Enter into." = Except ye turn. 


xviii. 3 








Instruction of Disciples ... 


' Greatest in." = Humble. 
■; Enter into." = Maimed. 
" Likened unto " [Unmerciful servant.! 


xviii. 4 
xviii. 23 


ix. 47 






Sending of Seventy 

To the Disciples 


{■ Kingdom of God." = Publish. Fit for. 
"Come nigh unto you . . . come nigh." 
"Give you." 






ix. 60-62 
x. 9-1 1 
xii. 32. 




To the Pharisees ... 


( " Entereth violently." 

j "Cometh not with observation." 

{ " Among you." 

/" For the . . . sake." 


xix, 12 




xvi. to 

XVii. 20 

XVii. 2 1 






"Of such." 


xix. 14 


X. 14 


xviii. 16 




To the Disciples 


I " Receive." 


x. 15 


xviii 17 






|"Hard . . . to enter into." (" How hardly.") (Ditto.) 


Xix. 23, 24 


x. 23-25 


xviii. 24. 75 






"For the . . . sake." 






xviii. 29 






\" Is like unto." [Labourers.] 


XX. I 








To Chief Priests and Elders 


( " Go into." 

j 'Taken away . . . given to . . ." 

1 ' Likened unto." [Marriage feast.] 


xxi. 31 
xxi. 43 
.xxii, 2 








To a Scribe 


" Not far from," 




xii. 34 






To Scribes and Pharisees... 


"Shut the Kingdom." 
("Gospel of." 
" Is nigh." 


xxili. ij 
xxiv. 14 














xxi. 31 






" Be likened unto." [Virgins.] 


XXV. I 








To the Disciples 


J " Inherit the Kingdom." 


XXV. 34 








| " The Kingdom of God." = Passover fulfilled in. 






xxii. 16 






" My Father's." (Kingdom of God.) (. . . shall come.) 


xxvi. 29 


xiv. 25 


xxii. 18 






1 " Appoint unto you." = Sit on thrones. 






xxii. 29 






V"In My." 






xxii. 30 




To Pilate 


("Not of this world." 
t "Not from hence." 








xviii. 36 



Readings of parallel passages in brackets, thus ( ). 



Titles of parables in brackets thus [ ]. 



Certain notes follow the sign =. 



C. THE TEACHING OF CHRIST 
CONCERNING THE KINGDOM 
OF GOD 

I. THE FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTION 



" From that time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Repent ye ; for the 
Kingdom of heaven is at hand." — Matthew iv. if. 

" Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy 
Kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven p so on earth." — vi. g, 10. 

" Seek ye first His Kingdom, and His righteousness ; and all these 
things shall be added unto you." — vi.33. 

" The Kingdom of heaven is at hand." — x. 7. 

" Art Thou He that cometh, or look we for another ? And Jesus an- 
swered and said unto them, Go your way and tell John the things which 
ye do hear and see : the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the 
lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and 
the poor have good tidings preached to them." — xi. 3-5. 

" From the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of heaven 
suffereth violence, and men of violence take it by force." — xi. 12. 

" If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the Kingdom of God 
come upon you." — xii. 28. 



" The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand : repent ye, 
and believe in the Gospel." — Mark i. 13. 



" The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." — Luke x. g. 



" Nicodemus came unto Him by night, and said to Him, Rabbi, we 
know that Thou art a teacher come from God : for no man can do these 
signs that Thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered, and said 
unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born anew, he 
cannot see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto Him, How can 
a man be born when he is old ? Can he enter a second time into his 
mother's womb, and be born ? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto 
thee, Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
the Kingdom of God." — John in. 2-3. 

" Verily I say unto you, I will no more drink of the fruit of the vine, 
until that day when I drink it new in the Kingdom of God." — xiv. 23. 



THE FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTION 

The vastness of this subject will at once be recognized, 
and its immediate interest conceded. To deal with it ex- 
haustively is not my purpose, but rather to survey the teach- 
ing in outline, by grouping and considering the actual words 
of our Lord. Some of the aspects with which I shall deal 
will be : the fundamental conception ; some different phases 
of the one fact, as they are unified in Himself; His view of 
the existing anarchy ; the redemptive processes which He re- 
vealed, — the Cross, the Church, the Conflict, the Crisis of 
the second Advent ; and His revelation of final realization. 

We commence, then, with the fundamental conception. 
The subject is one of immediate interest. The attention of 
many is being turned to the Kingdom of God, and much 
that is of very great value has been written thereon during 
recent years. In this process of reconsideration and re- 
statement certain things have been said from which person- 
ally I should very profoundly differ, while I respect those 
who have said them. There have been those who have de- 
clared that we must return to the teaching of Jesus concern- 
ing the Kingdom of God, and abandon the apostolic teach- 
ing concerning the Church. The idea of the Kingdom and 
that of the Church have thus been put into opposition to 
each other. It has been affirmed that the conception of 
the Church, as we know it, is Pauline, and that Paul in 
some measure departed from the ideals of Jesus ; and we 
have been urged, in the light of that interpretation, to get 
back to Christ. Now our present line of study will not 

199 



200 The Teaching of Christ 

bring us to the consideration of the alleged difference be- 
tween Paul and Christ; but we shall see where Christ 
placed the Church in regard to the Kingdom. 

That is only a passing illustration. The interesting fact 
is that at the present hour there is a new interest in the sub- 
ject ; a new enquiry, a new criticism, a new attempt to re- 
state. What is meant by the Kingdom of God ? How 
far are we responsible for it ? How far are we realizing it ? 
How far is it possible to realize it ? My desire in thus in- 
dicating the atmosphere of the moment is to emphasize the 
immediate interest of our theme. 

The fundamental conception will be considered in two 
ways : first, by observing that the Kingdom of God, — what- 
ever may be meant by the phrase, — was most evidently 
fundamental to the doing and the teaching of Jesus ; and 
secondly, by attempting to discover the idea that was central 
to His mind as He used the term. 

First, then, the Kingdom was fundamental in the doing 
and the teaching of our Lord. This hardly needs proof. 
Whether we consider the teaching that was public, or 
private, the teaching that was systematic, or incidental ; we 
find running through the whole of it, like flashes of light, 
this word Kingdom and its cognate phrases. To summarize 
mathematically and briefly : in the Gospel according to 
Matthew I find the word Kingdom recorded as passing His 
lips forty-seven times ; in Mark, thirteen ; in Luke, thirty- 
one ; and in John, five. In this connection it should be re- 
membered that John used another phrase, which is really 
the equivalent of Kingdom. His phrase was " eternal life," 
a phrase emphasizing the power and result of the Divine 
Kingship, as the other phrases indicate its fact, and deal 
with its applications. 

It is impossible for us to cover all the ground ; but there 
are certain outstanding facts at which we will glance. 



The Fundamental Conception 201 

These we will group around the words I have already bor- 
rowed from the second treatise of Luke, the doing and the 
teaching of Jesus. I shall of course deal especially with the 
teaching, but must also make a brief reference to the fact 
that His doing was equally based upon this fundamental 
conception. 

The first recorded teaching of Jesus which can be at all 
described as systematic is found in the Gospel of John. It 
was given to an individual, Nicodemus. A ruler among his 
people, he came to Jesus and said, " Rabbi, we know that 
Thou art a Teacher come from God : for no man can do 
these signs that Thou doest, except God be with Him." 
To him the Master said, " Except a man be born anew, he 
cannot see the Kingdom of God." When in amazement 
the ruler replied, " How can a man be born when he is old ? " 
our Lord explicitly replied, " Except a man be born of 
water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of 
God." ' The first account of our Lord's coming face to 
face in personal dealing with an inquiring soul records His 
assumption of the Kingdom of God as the matter of supreme 
moment. The moment He began to deal with one man who 
was inquiring for the final light, His recognition of the im- 
portance of the Kingdom of God is manifest. 

Then observe that when He commenced His more pub- 
lic, definite, and systematic propaganda in Galilee, both Mat- 
thew and Mark declare that this was the key-note of His 
preaching. He " began to preach, and to say, Repent ye, 
for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." 2 His call was to 
repentance, and the immediate reason was that the King- 
dom of heaven was at hand. 

Matthew and Mark, in chronicling that key-note to the 
ministry of our Lord, used different phrases. Matthew re- 
ported Him as saying, " The Kingdom of heaven is at 
1 John iii. 2-5. 2 Matt. iv. 17. Mark i. 15. 



202 The Teaching of Christ 

hand " ; l while Mark recorded the words thus, " The King- 
dom of God is at hand." 2 Thus at the very commence- 
ment of our study, we are brought face to face with these 
two phrases, and to base any particular doctrine upon the 
difference is entirely unwarranted. The phrase our Lord 
most commonly used was that of " the Kingdom of heaven," 
and Mark's change is a revelation of the simple and natural 
way in which these stories are told. It is certainly true that 
our Lord did use the phrase, the Kingdom of God. In our 
study of His teaching we shall make no difference between 
these two phrases. They are mutually interpretative. 

Presently He commissioned and sent forth twelve men ; 
and yet later, seventy. In each commission the principal 
work allotted to them was in the interest of the Kingdom ; 
" Preach, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is at hand " ; 3 
" Say unto them, the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto 
you." 4 

In the parabolic teaching of the Lord, the fact that this 
conception was fundamental is strikingly revealed. We 
have twenty-nine parables recorded in the New Testament. 
Of these, seventeen definitely mention the Kingdom of 
God, and are declared to be in exposition of it. Those in 
the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, — the Sower, the Darnel, 
the Mustard Seed, the Leaven, the hidden Treasure, the 
Pearl, the Drag-net, and the Householder specifically deal 
with the subject. And beyond those, we have the parables 
of the unmerciful Servant, the Labourers in the Vineyard, the 
Two Sons in the Vineyard, the wicked Husbandmen, the 
royal Marriage Feast, the ten Virgins, the Talents, the Seed 
growing secretly, and the Pounds ; — all of them definitely 
and explicitly parables concerning the Kingdom of heaven, 
or the Kingdom of God. If we turn to the other twelve 

1 Matt. iv. 17. 3 Matt. x. 7. 

9 Mark i. 15. 4 Luke x. 9. 



The Fundamental Conception 203 

we find, although the word Kingdom may not occur in 
them, in more than half of them the context reveals the fact 
that they are related to the thought of the Kingdom ; and in 
the whole of them the Kingdom conception is the master 
idea. Whenever He uttered a parable, in His own mind 
there was the vision of the Kingdom of God. 

The same is true of the great systematic discourses of 
Jesus. In that which we call the Sermon on the Mount, 
the Manifesto of the King, the ethic is patently that of His 
Kingdom. Those parables of the thirteenth chapter of 
Matthew, which He delivered partly to the multitudes and 
partly to His own disciples, are a revelation of the processes 
of the Kingdom through a certain period. In the great 
prophecies uttered on Olivet the master thought is still that 
of the Kingdom. In His last conversation with the dis- 
ciples in the upper room, before the agony of Gethsemane 
and Calvary, when He instituted the new ordinance, He 
said, — it was but an allusion, but it is significant, — " I will 
no more drink of the fruit of the vine, until that day when 
I drink it new in the Kingdom of God." 1 Thus it is seen 
that the final realization of all things, towards which He 
looked under the shadow of the Cross, the light and the 
glory that lay beyond, was the coming Kingdom of God. 
When we turn from the Gospels themselves to the last 
paragraph of history concerning Him ere His ascension, in 
the first chapter of the Acts, we find that after His resurrec- 
tion He was seen for many days, during which He was giving 
His disciples instructions concerning the Kingdom of God. 

So that from the first note of systematic teaching, through 
all methods, — parabolic, systematic, incidental ; to the last 
hour of anticipation, the Kingdom of God was in His mind. 

His doing was a further revelation of the fact, which 
may now be dismissed by three references. When John 

1 Mark xiv. 25. 



204 The Teaching of Christ 

was cast into prison he was puzzled and perplexed by the 
method that Jesus was adopting, and he sent his disciples to 
Him, asking, " Art Thou He that cometh, or look we for 
another ? " Our Lord replied, " Go your way and tell John 
the things which ye do hear and see : the blind receive 
their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and 
the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have 
good tidings preached to them." * As they departed to bear 
His message He said to the people, " The Kingdom of 
heaven suffereth violence, and men of violence take it by 
force." 2 The connection of His declaration with the 
message He sent to John must be patent. John looked for 
the Kingdom, but he could not understand the method of 
the King. He seemed to be doing nothing. He was 
gathering no army. He was making no proclamation. He 
was calling together no parliament of men. He was simply 
walking about, healing a few, speaking to individuals and 
companies of men. When the disciples of John came ask- 
ing Him if He were the King, or were they to look for 
another, He said in effect, Go and tell John that these things 
are the things of the Kingdom. I am at work in the in- 
terests of the Kingdom. I am manifesting the powers of 
the Kingdom. I am preparing for the coming of the King- 
dom. Then to the multitudes He declared that only men 
who do violence to their own prejudices will enter that 
Kingdom. Thus He revealed the fact that all the works 
of healing and mercy were works of the Kingdom, and 
works for the Kingdom. 

When the Pharisees declared that He cast out demons 
by the power of Beelzebub, He said, " If I by the Spirit of 
God cast out devils, then is the Kingdom of God come 
upon you." 3 It was but an incidental reference, yet it 
revealed the fact that when He cast demons out, He realized 
1 Matt. xi. 3-5. a Ibid., xi. 12. * Ibid., xii. 28. 



The Fundamental Conception 205 

that He was making possible the Kingdom of God in the 
case of the individual, and of society. 

Again there came a day when the people of Siloam 
brought their children to Jesus, and the disciples bade them 
depart. He rebuked the disciples, and He did it angrily. 
Mark tells us quite definitely that He was moved with 
indignation. But what was His argument for permitting the 
children to come ? " Of such is the Kingdom of God." * 
So that whether He accounted for His works to a perplexed 
prophet, or defended His method to the critical and unbeliev- 
ing Pharisees, or welcomed the children, the reason underly- 
ing everything in His own mind was the Kingdom of God. 

Thus it is patent that the Kingdom of God was His 
chief concern, His constant inspiration, His abiding pur- 
pose, and His all-sufficient power. Follow Him through 
all the days of His public ministry, listen to every word 
that fell from His lips, accompany Him upon every journey 
that He took, watch every action of beneficence or of 
judgment; and in the light of the things He Himself said, 
it becomes apparent that the reason for all speech and all 
action, for all journeys and all tarryings, for all pity and all 
anger, was the Kingdom of God. It was the master pas- 
sion of His life, the fundamental conception of all His 
teaching and all His doing. 

So we may pass to our second enquiry. What was this 
idea which was so patently central to His mind as He 
taught and wrought ? The terms, Kingdom of heaven, 
Kingdom of God, were in common use in our Lord's day 
in the Rabbinical teachings. These terms, or their equiva- 
lents, are found in the Old Testament Scriptures. There- 
fore when our Lord made use of these terms, men were 
very familiar with them. We are familiar with them be- 
cause to-day they are peculiarly Christian terms. 

1 Mark x. 14. 



206 The Teaching of Christ 

The idea of the Kingdom of God, crystallized into a term, 
emerges in Exodus. Its first appearance in the Old Testa- 
ment Scriptures is when God said, through Moses, to His 
ancient people, " Ye shall be unto Me a Kingdom of 
priests." ' It appears again in the second book of Samuel, 
in the story of David's desire to build a temple. 2 We find 
it again in the books of the Chronicles twice over. 3 The 
term is found in the books of the Psalms six times. 4 It is 
mentioned by the prophets Isaiah, 5 Micah, 6 and Obadiah, 7 
and it is the very burden of that strange and wonderful 
book of Daniel. So that the terms our Lord made use of 
were familiar in Rabbinical teachings, and by reason of the 
fact that they were incorporated in the Scriptures ; but to 
neither Rabbinical teaching nor Old Testament Scriptures 
must we go for interpretation of His meaning. The 
Rabbinical teachings He largely contradicted. He did not 
contradict the teachings of the Old Testament, but He 
corrected misinterpretations of them, and He fulfilled them. 
When therefore we desire to know what our Lord really 
meant, we have but one court of appeal, His own teachings. 
The very last story to which I have made reference, the 
first paragraph in the Acts, reveals the fact that after cruci- 
fixion and resurrection His disciples were in entire igno- 
rance of all the deep content of the phrase with which they 
were so familiar, and it was necessary that He should give 
them their immediate work, and leave them waiting for fuller 
explanation after the Pentecostal effusion. 
^, Let us then first take the terms which were so often 
upon the lips of our Lord, and quite simply look at them ; 
the two terms, the Kingdom of heaven, the Kingdom of 

1 Exod. xix. 6. 3 2 Sam. vii. 12, 13. 

3 1 Chron. xxix. II. 2 Chron. xiii. 8. 

^Psa.^xxii. 28; xlv. 6; ciii. 19; cxlv. II, 12, 13. 

•Isa. ix. 7 j lxii v 3. 6 Micah iv. 8. 'Obad. 21. 



The Fundamental Conception 207 

God. While, as we have seen, no clear-cut distinction 
must be made between them, and while in all probability 
His own term was most often the Kingdom of heaven, 
there can be little doubt that He used them both. 

The phrase " the Kingdom of heaven " is only to be 
found in Matthew ; but in Matthew we also find the 
phrases " the Kingdom of God " and " His Kingdom," 
and that in most remarkable circumstances. 

Let us first consider the word Kingdom, which is found 
in both phrases. Every one is supposed to know what 
kingdom means. Nevertheless one of the first things nec- 
essary to our understanding of the teaching of our Lord is 
that we should carefully examine this, because our common 
understanding of the word is partial. In order to an inter- 
pretation of the true meaning of the word let us make use 
of three very simple words : Rule, Realm, Result. Rule is 
the abstract meaning of Kingdom. The Kingdom of God 
is the rule of God. That is the deepest note. Realm is 
the concrete fact of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God 
is the sphere in which His rule is exercised. Result is the 
realization of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is the 
result realized within His realm through His rule. The 
Kingdom of God is the rule of God. The Kingdom of 
God is the realm over which God rules. The Kingdom of 
God is the result produced in the realm of God as the re- 
sult of the rule of God. 

All these values are in our word, and we must watch for 
them. As we study, we must be careful lest when we read 
of the Kingdom of God we simply think of a territory, and 
largely neglect the first and fundamental fact that gives 
value to everything else, that of the rule of God. Modern 
writers are "employing another word, the reign of God. 
Now in certain applications that word is of enormous value, 
but it leaves a good deal out, and the actual word Kingdom 



2o8 The Teaching of Christ 

is better ; for the reign of God is not the territory over 
which He rules, but the exercise of authority over it, while 
the word Kingdom includes both ideas, and more. The 
Kingdom of heaven is at once the authority of Heaven ; 
the territory over which the heavenly order prevails ; and 
the results produced within that territory because the 
heavenly order prevails. These are the values of the word, 
and the truths which we must keep in mind. 

Let us now consider the phrase, of heaven, A remark- 
able fact, perhaps a small one apparently, and yet full of 
significance, is that wherever we read " the Kingdom of 
heaven " we more accurately express what is actually writ- 
ten if we read, "The Kingdom of the heavens." The 
word is plural. The value of that may be discovered by a 
reference to the Lord's Prayer. To read it a little more 
literally, as to its first half: "Our Father Who art in the 
heavens, Thy name be hallowed. Thy Kingdom come. 
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth." ' A doctrine 
of God is included in the invocation : " Our Father Who art 
in the heavens." This method of address suggests the 
omnipresence of God. In the final clause, "as in heaven, 
so on earth," the word is singular; and the reference pat- 
ently is to that heaven which is the place of the supreme 
manifestation of God. Thus the prayer is that the heavenly 
order may be established in the world. 

So that the phrase, Kingdom of heaven, reveals the 
pattern of the true Kingdom on earth. The idea of the 
term is that in this world, the laws of heaven should be ob- 
served ; and by that I do not merely mean the laws heaven 
makes for earth, but the laws that heaven obeys. How 
little we know of the heaven that lies beyond, of all that 
wonderful region, place, locality, where are unfallen angels 
and the spirits of the just men made perfect. But Christ 

1 Matt. vi. 9, 10. 



The Fundamental Conception 209 

taught us to pray that the laws that govern them, the reason 
for the things they do, the master-passion of all their ac- 
tivity, may become the laws, the reason, the master-passion 
governing the affairs of this world of ours. 

The phrase, " of God," with a sublime brevity brings us 
face to face with the central authority, for the Kingdom of 
the heavens is the Kingdom of God. 

We are not at present dealing with applications. We 
shall come to some of them ; for our Lord believed that 
flowers are in that Kingdom, and that the King clothes 
them ; that birds are in that Kingdom, and that the King 
is with the dying sparrow ; that children are in that King- 
dom, and that " in heaven their angels do always behold the 
face of My Father." 

Thus we return in conclusion to the central idea of Jesus 
when He used these phrases. That idea was that of the 
rule of God. The rule of God in His mind was at once 
a fact ; a claim in the presence of human will ; and a pur- 
pose, the master-passion and inspiration of all His own 
ministry. The clear vision shining through all clouds and 
darkness, illuminating every hour of His patient, sorrowful 
life, making even the mists about the Cross purple with 
the joy that was set before Him, was that of the authority 
of God, the rule of God, the reign of God. His mission 
in the world was to proclaim that authority, to insist upon 
it, to explain it, to reveal it, to woo men towards it, to warn 
men against neglecting it. The mighty passion that bore 
Him up through all sorrows and misunderstandings, that 
bore Him at last to Calvary, was His passion for that King- 
dom of God. 

We have never yet begun to see the exquisite mosaic of 
these four stories, nor have we caught the majestic harmony 
of their varied tones, until we have realized that the King- 
dom of God, in the thinking and the purpose of our Lord, 



210 The Teaching of Christ 

is the key to the mosaic, and the dominant chord of the 
music. His passion in this world of ours, in this human 
history which is but a part of God's great whole, was for 
the restoration of the lost order, the establishment of the 
Kingdom, and the bringing back of men and things under 
the beneficent and healing and beauteous sway of the au- 
thority of God. 



II. DIFFERENT PHASES OF THE ONE FACT 



" From that time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Repent ye ; for the 
Kingdom of heaven is at hand." — Matthew iv. if. 

" Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." 
" Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake : 
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." 

""Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and 
shall teach men so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of heaven : but 
whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the King- 
dom of heaven." — v. 3, 10, ig. 

" Thy Kingdom come." 

" But seek ye first His Kingdom, and His righteousness ; and all these 
things shall be added unto you." — vi. 10,33. 

'* As ye go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is at hand." — x. 7. 

" And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of 
heaven suffereth violence, and men of violence take it by force." — xi. 12. 

" But if I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the Kingdom of 
God come upon you." — xii. 28. 

" The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather 
out of His Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do 
iniquity. . . . Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the 
Kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears, let him hear." — xiii. 41, 43. 

" Therefore every scribe who hath been made a disciple to the Kingdom 
of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth 
out of his treasure things new and old." — xiii. 52. 

" I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven : and what- 
soever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever 
thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." — xvi. ig. 

" Verily I say unto you, Except ye turn, and become as little children, 
ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of heaven." — xviii. 3. 

" Therefore say I unto you, The Kingdom of God shall be taken away 
from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." 
— xxi. 43. 

" But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! because ye shut 
the Kingdom of heaven against men : for ye enter not in yourselves, neither 
suffer ye them that are entering in to enter." — xxiii. 13. 



" If thine eye cause thee to stumble, cast it out : it is good for thee to 
enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes 
to be cast into hell." — Mark ix. 47. 



" Heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The Kingdom of 
God is come nigh unto you. But into whatsoever city ye shall enter, and 
they receive you not, go out into the streets thereof and say, Even the dust 
from your city, that cleaveth to our feet, we do wipe off against you : how- 
beit know this, that the Kingdom of God is come nigh." — Luke x. g-11. 

" Fear not, little flock ; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you 
the Kingdom." — xii. 32. 

" The law and the prophets were until John : from that time the Gospel 
of the Kingdom of God is preached, and every man entereth violently into 
it." — xvi. 16. 

" Neither shall they say, Lo, here ! or, There ! for lo, the Kingdom of 
God is within you." — xvii. 21. 



" Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born anew, he cannot 
see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto Him, How can a man 
be born when he is old ? can he enter a second time into his mother's 
womb, and be born ? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Ex- 
cept a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the King- 
dom of God." — John Hi. 3-3. 

"My Kingdom is not of this world: If My Kingdom were of this 
world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the 
Jews : but now is My Kingdom not from hence." — xviii. 36. 



II 

DIFFERENT PHASES OF THE ONE FACT 

Let us now consider some phases of the one inclusive 
fact of the Kingdom of God suggested by the phrases which 
our Lord used when referring to it. His first recorded refer- 
ence to the Kingdom was in His conversation with Nico- 
demus. His last recorded reference to the Kingdom was in 
His conversation with Pilate. These are at least interesting 
and suggestive facts. Both these conversations are found in 
the Gospel according to John : and indeed, they are only 
found there ; and yet further, they are the only occurrences 
of the word Kingdom in that Gospel. 

Between these conversations the word was constantly 
upon His lips, as the idea was ever in His mind ; and so 
varied were His references and declarations that sometimes 
they seem to be contradictory. It would not be at all diffi- 
cult for any one, who was so disposed, to set down one thing 
our Master said, upon one occasion, concerning the King- 
dom ; and opposite it something He said upon another oc- 
casion, apparently in direct opposition. To take a simple 
illustration. He declared, " Then shall the righteous shine 
forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father." l Upon 
another occasion He said, " The Kingdom of God cometh 
not with observation." 2 I am not proposing now to deal 
with that apparent contradiction. I but refer to it. As a 
matter of fact all these seeming contradictions must be con- 
sidered in their relationship to His whole conception of the 
Kingdom ; and being so considered, they will be found to 

1 Matt. xiii. 43. a Luke xvii. 20. 

215 



216 The Teaching of Christ 

reveal different aspects of the Kingdom as He understood 
it, and as He came to reveal it. 

At the commencement of these studies will be found a 
table of the references which our Lord made to the King- 
dom, set out, so far as I am abie, in chronological order. 

A glance at this table will show that in the brief report of 
the words of Jesus preserved for us, there are at least sixty- 
two references to the Kingdom, and His employment of dif- 
ferent phrases with regard thereto is in itself a matter of very 
great interest. I propose to select those which give distinct 
ideas, and then to indicate the unification of these ideas in 
the Person, and in the mission of our Lord. 

The boundaries of suggestion are to be found in His first 
and final references to the Kingdom. 

The first reference was made to Nicodemus in the words, 
" Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born anew, 
he cannot see the Kingdom of God." 1 It was a striking 
introduction, general and inclusive. He made use of a phrase 
that was current in Rabbinical teaching, and that was not 
unknown in the Scriptures of the old economy ; and immedi- 
ately connected that common phrase with an idea, strangely 
new and mystical to the mind of the man who listened. 
About the " Kingdom of God " Nicodemus knew much, or 
thought he did ; but when the Master declared that no man 
can see it, unless he be born from above, a new and strange 
idea was presented to his mind. 

Nicodemus had come to Him devoutly, honestly, and 
sincerely, himself a teacher in Israel, earnestly desiring to 
know the last thing God had to say to men. He believed 
that the God of his fathers, Who had spoken to them in 
divers portions and divers methods in the past, had through 
Jesus something else to say, something more to communi- 
cate : " We know that Thou art a Teacher come from 

1 John iii. 3. 



Different Phases of the One Fact 2 1 7 

God." ' He had come to listen to the added line, the new 
precept, the little more ; and our Master took the whole 
conception of Hebraism, and expressed it in the opening 
phrase, " the Kingdom of God," and then said to the ruler 
and the teacher, No man can see it unless he be born anew. 
The idea of the Kingdom in its entirety lay within that 
opening word, and it was accompanied by a revelation of 
our Master's conception of man's condition. A man is un- 
able to see the Kingdom, cannot know it, save as he receives 
some mystic gift of life from above ; the result of the re- 
ception of which will be a vision of the Kingdom, and an 
understanding of its true meaning. 

The last declaration was made at the close of the long 
ministry, in that wonderful word which our Lord spoke in 
the presence of the Roman procurator, " My Kingdom is 
not of this world : if My Kingdom were of this world, then 
would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to 
the Jews : but now is My Kingdom not from hence." 2 
This is an equally striking conclusion. If the first word 
was general and inclusive, the final word was particular and 
corrective. If the first word indicated the fact that for the 
seeing of the Kingdom there must be some communication 
of heavenly life, the last word indicated the fact that for the 
realization of the Kingdom, material forces and policies are 
of no avail. The rule of heaven over the world is My 
Kingdom ; My Kingdom is not of the cosmos, does not 
depend upon the things that are in it. My Kingdom is the 
reign and rule of heaven over the cosmos. The results at 
which I have been aiming will never be realized by armies 
or policies; not hence is My Kingdom. 

There stood the Master face to face with the symbol and 
embodiment in a man, of the greatest power of government 
in the world ; all the Roman Empire was represented in 
1 John iii. 2. 2 Ibid., xviii. 36. 



218 The Teaching of Christ 

Pilate, and to him Jesus said, Not hence is My Kingdom 5 
not by these methods is it to be established. 

The boundaries of suggestion then are : first, that what- 
ever He meant by the Kingdom, no man can see it, save as 
he receive new life from above ; and finally, that whatever 
He meant by the Kingdom, it can never be realized in hu- 
man history, by human policies, and human cleverness. 
All His teaching is bounded by these two great prin- 
ciples. 

Now let us glance over what lies between that first 
declaration and that final affirmation, and taking all these 
references attempt to summarize them, and to deduce from 
them their values. There are five things which our Lord's 
references to the Kingdom make perfectly clear. 

He declared first that the Kingdom of God is that into 
which men must enter. There is a sense in which all men 
and all angels and all devils are in the Kingdom of God, 
and can never escape from His Kingship. But there is a 
sense in which men are outside, and there must be, on 
their part, a definite act of entrance. 

In the second place His teaching proclaimed the fact that 
the Kingdom of God came to men, when He came to men. 

In the third place His teaching revealed the fact that the 
Kingdom of God is the inheritance of those who enter in, 
and submit to the rule of God. 

In the fourth place He showed that the Kingdom of 
God is that for which the subjects, entering in, become 
responsible in all the affairs of this life. 

And finally, He taught that the Kingdom of God is that 
which will be established in the world by processes leading 
up to a definite crisis. 

That is to summarize quite briefly the result of an exami- 
nation of the phrases which our Lord used, rather than to 
consider carefully any particular and specific teaching. 



Different Phases of the One Fact 219 

He declared that the Kingdom of God is that into which 
men must enter. He treated men as being outside that 
Kingdom ; and He was perfectly clear in His teaching con- 
cerning the way by which they may enter the Kingdom. 
He declared that the first necessity for entrance is new life 
in the second word He spoke to Nicodemus, " Except a 
man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
the Kingdom of God." ' He revealed the conditions upon 
which men may have life, and so enter into the Kingdom ; 
the intellectual condition : " From the days of John the 
Baptist until now the Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, 
and men of violence taketh it by force." 2 Or as He said 
upon another occasion, u The law and the prophets were 
until John : from that time the Gospel of the Kingdom of 
God is preached, and every man entereth violently into it." 3 
A careful examination of these two in their mutual light 
will show that our Lord was speaking as to intellectual diffi- 
culty, to men who could not understand the methods He 
was adopting. His methods for the establishment of His 
Kingdom are as alien to the philosophies of the hour, as 
they were to the intellectual apprehension of John the 
Baptist ; but He will establish His Kingdom by His own 
method, which is the only method. Therefore a man must 
be prepared to do violence to all his own wit and wisdom 
and cleverness, and be assured that the method of preaching 
the Gospel to the poor, and healing the sick, and opening 
blind eyes, and refusing to gather an army, and failing to 
call together a parliament, are the real methods of the King- 
dom ; — individual preaching of a truth, insistence upon the 
importance of truth, the perpetual, quiet, and personal prop- 
aganda from man to man, the creation of the new social 
order by the regeneration of the individuals that make up 
the social order. 

^ohniii. 5. *Matt. xi. 12. 8 Luke xvi. 16. 



220 The Teaching of Christ 



u 



He also revealed the emotional condition for entering. 

Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall 
in no wise enter into the Kingdom of heaven." l Until a 
man shall go back to childhood, and to the spirit of a little 
child, which is the spirit of simplicity, of conscious and 
confessed imperfection, of plasticity ; unless a man get 
back emotionally to that point, and is willing to take that 
position, he cannot enter into the Kingdom. 

He revealed, moreover, in startling language, in terms 
that thrill and almost thunder in severity, the volitional 
necessity : " If thine eye cause thee to stumble, cast it 
out : it is good for thee to enter into the Kingdom of God 
with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into 
hell." 2 

The conception was always that of having to enter in, 
and the intellectual and the emotional and the volitional 
values were clearly revealed. The Kingdom is that into 
which a man must enter, and must enter by a process, by 
revolution rather than evolution. 

But in the second place — and here is the note of hope, 
and here is the light and the glory of the teaching of Jesus 
— His words reveal the fact that He conceived of the 
Kingdom of God as that which had come to men. Such 
was His unvarying proclamation. 

It was the key-note of His own preaching, " From that 
time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Repent ye ; for the 
Kingdom of heaven is at hand." 3 

It was the key-note of His commission to the twelve, 
" As ye go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is at 
hand." 4 

It was the claim He made when His enemies charged 
Him with casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, 

1 Matt, xviii. 3. 3 Matt. iv. 17. 

2 Mark ix. 47. 4 Tfotf., x. 7. 



Different Phases of the One Fact 221 

" If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the King- 
dom of God come upon you." ' 

It was the key-note of His commission to the seventy, 
" Heal the sick . . . and say unto them, The King- 
dom of God is come nigh unto you . . . howbeit 
know this, that the Kingdom of God is come nigh." 2 

Finally when enforcing His claim in answer to the 
criticism of the Pharisees He said, " Lo, the Kingdom of 
God is among you," 3 that is, in the midst of you. That is 
one of the passages upon which philosophies unwarranted 
by the teaching of Jesus have been built. There are those 
who tell us that the passage means that our Lord said that 
in every man there is the Kingdom of God, and it only 
needs developing. That was not the intention. The con- 
text sweeps the idea away. The Kingdom of God was in 
the midst of them because He was in the midst of them, 
revealing its purpose, its powers, and its passion. This 
statement was a claim for Himself, and not a description 
of human nature. From beginning to end of His ministry 
He declared that the Kingdom of God was nigh at hand. 

Two things then have we so far seen ; first that men 
must enter the Kingdom by way of change, by revolution ; 
and secondly, that He had brought the Kingdom close to 
men in order that they might enter in. 

The third phase of suggestion made by these phrases of 
our Lord is that the Kingdom of God is the inheritance 
of the subjects thereof. Three illustrations will suffice ; 
the opening beatitude, " Blessed are the poor in spirit : for 
theirs is the Kingdom of heaven," 4 the closing beatitude, 
"Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteous- 
ness' sake : for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven," 5 and 
when speaking to His own disciples, repeating to them 

1 Matt. xii. 28. *Ibid. t xvii. 21. 5 Ibid. % v. io. 

8 Luke x. 9-1 1. < Matt. v. 3. 



222 The Teaching of Christ 

some parts of the Manifesto on another occasion, and in a 
different place, He gave utterance to these wonderful words, 
" Fear not, little flock ; for it is your Father's good pleasure 
to give you the Kingdom. " ! 

The idea suggested by these words of Christ is that men en- 
tering into the Kingdom He has brought nigh become citizens 
of that Kingdom. There is conferred upon them the freedom 
of the city of God. They are now made participants in all 
the values of that Kingdom. They enter, in order to possess 
it. Those who are poor in spirit, and who therefore enter into 
the Kingdom He has brought nigh, entering in are not there on 
sufferance. "No more strangers and sojourners, but . . . 
fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." 2 

And ultimately to those who enter in, the Kingdom is 
given in perfection. u Fear not, little flock ; for it is your 
Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." ' That 
is a picture of the ultimate democracy, but it is democracy 
realizing itself under the supreme and vital government of 
the absolute monarchy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
Those who enter the Kingdom possess it, all its riches are 
theirs, all its privileges belong to them. 

The fourth phase of suggestion resulting from these 
phrases of our Lord is that the Kingdom of God is that for 
which its subjects become responsible. Nothing is more 
patent than this in the study of the words of Jesus. Mark 
His instructions as they are found in the Manifesto, in the 
parables, and notably at the great confession at Caesarea 
Philippi. In the course of the Manifesto He said as to 
their teaching : " Whosoever therefore shall break one of 
these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be 
called least in the Kingdom of heaven : but whosoever shall 
do and teach them, he shall be called great in the Kingdom 
of heaven." 3 He commanded them to pray for the coming 

1 Luke xii. 32. 9 Eph. ii. 19. 8 Matt. v. 19. 



Different Phases of the One Fact 223 

of the Kingdom in the words " Our Father Who art in the 
heavens, Thy name be hallowed. Thy Kingdom come. 
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." ' And He 
called them to effort for the coming of the Kingdom in the 
words, " Seek ye first His Kingdom, and His righteous- 
ness ; and all these things shall be added unto you." 2 
Thus those entering the Kingdom He has brought nigh, and 
sharing its privileges, are made responsible for that King- 
dom in the world. 

His parabolic teaching, recorded specially in the thir- 
teenth chapter of Matthew, was in part delivered to the 
multitudes, and in part in private to the disciples. He 
ended that teaching by asking His own disciples, " Have 
ye understood all these things ? " And they said " Yea." 
Then said He, " Therefore every scribe who hath been 
made a disciple to the Kingdom of heaven is like unto a 
man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his 
treasure things new and old." 3 Thus the final parable 
revealed their responsibility. Because they were scribes, 
instructed to the Kingdom of heaven, they occupied the 
position of householders, who were responsible to bring out 
of their treasure-house things new and old. 

At Caesarea Philippi Peter made his great confession, and 
our Lord indicated this fact of responsibility in one phase 
of illustration concerning His Church. Not only did He 
say, " I will build My Church " ; not only " the gates of 
Hades shall not prevail against it " ; but also, " I will give 
unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven." 4 I will 
give unto thee the insignia of moral authority in the world. 
The keys are the symbols of an ethical responsibility rest- 
ing upon all disciples of the Kingdom. 

Thus our Lord indicated in His Manifesto, in His para- 

1 Matt. vi. 9, 10. 8 Matt. xiii. 51, 52. 

a Ibid., vi. 33. *Ibid., xvi. 18, 19. 



224 The Teaching of Christ 

bolic teaching, and at the crisis of Peter's confession, the 
truth that those who enter into the Kingdom which He 
brings near to men, and who by such entrance do possess 
for themselves the Kingdom, are responsible in the world for 
the revelation of that Kingdom, and its proclamation to men. 

This is even more solemnly revealed by words He ad- 
dressed to the rulers of the ancient people, and to the city 
itself. " I say unto you, The Kingdom of God shall be 
taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bring- 
ing forth the fruits thereof." * That doom was pronounced 
because that nation had failed to fulfill its Kingdom respon- 
sibility in the world. 

The same truth is yet more clearly, vividly, terribly 
stated in the final woes pronounced upon the rulers, " Woe 
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! because ye 
shut the Kingdom of heaven against men : for ye enter not 
in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in 
to enter." 2 

All these words addressed to His disciples, and woes pro- 
nounced upon the rulers of the time, reveal the same prin- 
ciple, that if we enter the Kingdom which He brings near, 
and share its privileges, its responsibilities rest upon us. 

Finally, the teaching of our Lord revealed the fact that 
the Kingdom of God on earth is to be established by 
processes leading to, and culminating in a crisis. All the 
Kingdom parables teach this. The process is that of the 
introduction of certain elements through individual souls 
into the world spirit and the world atmosphere ; the intro- 
duction of principles ; the sowing of the good seed. These 
parables reveal also the fact of development ; the develop- 
ment of opposing forces and principles to full manifesta- 
tion ; the development of the good seed, first the blade, and 
then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear ; the growth 
1 Matt. xxi. 43. 2 Matt, xxiii. 13. 



Different Phases of the One Fact 225 

from the seed to the harvest of wheat ; the growth to abso- 
lute and final development and manifestation of darnel. 

There are some people who say : Do you not think the 
world is getting better ? Oh, yes, very much better every 
day ! But others say, Do you not think it is getting very 
much worse ? Yes, very much worse every day ! That 
is exactly the teaching of Jesus ; and the man who only 
sees that it is getting worse does not see as his Master saw ; 
and the man who only sees it getting better, sees very little. 
Accept it or reject it, this was clearly His teaching. He 
may have been mistaken, this Teacher of two millenniums 
ago. For the moment we are dealing only with what He 
said. The process is one of development ; development in 
which evil is wrought out to its ultimate and most terrible 
issue and manifestation ; development in which good, the 
good He brought into human history, is wrought out to its 
final manifestation. 

And how will the process end ? Not by wheat gaining 
a victory over darnel, or by darnel driving all wheat out of 
the field of the world ! It will end by a crisis in human 
history, clear, definite, sharp : a crisis in which evil is to be 
destroyed and swept out of the world, and good is to be 
brought to its final realization and its ultimate triumph. Not 
by a crisis alone, but by a process ending in a crisis ! Not 
by a process alone, but by a crisis prepared for by a process ! 

The teaching of our Lord and His apostles concerning 
His second advent as constituting the crisis is perfectly 
clear, and there can be no greater difficulty in Relieving 
that, than in believing the fact of the first advent. The 
second is no more wonderful a crisis than the first. God's 
method has always been that of process leading to crisis, 
the crisis initiating a new movement forward, until the 
glorious consummation. 

Thus our Lord declared that this Kingdom, to which He 



226 The Teaching of Christ 

made such constant reference, men must enter; He came 
to bring it near ; men entering become citizens thereof; 
becoming citizens they are responsible for its principles, its 
revelation, and its operations ; and that it will come by 
processes of development which will go forward until an 
hour of crisis, when He will appear a second time, defi- 
nitely taking action ; and the Kingdom will be established. 

All these phases revealed by His phrases are unified in 
Himself. In the boundaries of suggestion He first declared 
that life is the first necessity for vision, and proceeded to 
show Nicodemus how He had come to give that life. In 
the final affirmation He declared to Pilate that not by the 
methods of this world can His Kingdom come, but that He 
had come to proclaim truth, and that by the victory of truth 
the Kingdom must come. 

Entrance to the Kingdom is made possible by Himself. 
He it is Who has brought the Kingdom nigh to men. 
He bestows its gifts, and administers its resources. He 
directs its responsible services. His own advent is to 
create the crisis when evil is to be destroyed, and the King- 
dom is to be established. 

From that rapid survey we see a little more clearly the 
consequent sequence and order. By the first advent the 
rule of God was revealed; the realm of the rule was 
claimed in His name ; and the resources were provided that 
were necessary for the establishment of the material King- 
dom upon spiritual foundations. 

The process of to-day is that of individual realization of 
the Kingdom ; world-wide proclamation of the Kingdom 
by those in whom the Kingdom is realized ; and corporate 
realization of all the breadth and beauty of the Kingdom 
within the Christian Church. 

In this last particular we have most conspicuously failed. 
There is no clear manifestation of the Kingdom of God in 



Different Phases of the One Fact 227 

the corporate being of the Church of God to-day. The 
man outside has no clear vision of the Kingdom of God 
when he looks at the Christian Church. That one undi- 
vided whole, the holy nation, where is it ? Blessed be God, 
the spiritual unity has never been lost, for He has kept that 
within His own power ; but the outward manifestation has 
been entirely lost. The most disastrous phase of the 
Church's failure is her failure in her corporate capacity to 
reveal to men what the Kingdom of God will mean, when 
it is established in the world. 

The last word is that by the second advent there will be 
accomplished the ultimate victory of good over evil, the sub- 
jugation of the whole realm of the earth to the reign of God, 
in and through Jesus Christ, and so the fulfillment of the 
great ideal. 

It is ours to ask ourselves the simplest of all questions. 
Have I entered that Kingdom ? If I have not entered that 
Kingdom, how shall I enter it ? I can only enter it as He 
gives me that life from above that enables me to see it, and 
seeing it to obey it, and obeying it to become its citizen, and 
becoming its citizen to fulfill my responsibility while I wait 
for the flaming glory of His advent, and the ultimate triumph 
of God in the world. 



III. THE EXISTING ANARCHY 



" Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth 
out of the moulh of God. . . . Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 
. . . Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou 
serve." — Matthew iv.*4 t 7, 10. 

" Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." 
—v.3. 

« When He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for 
them, because they were distressed and scattered,|as sheep not having a 
shepherd." — ix. 36. 

" At that season Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father, 
Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise 
and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes ; yea, Father, for so 
it was well-pleasing in Thy sight. All things have been delivered unto Me 
of My Father : and no one knoweth the Son, save the Father ; neither doth 
any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth 
to reveal Him. Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest." — xi. 25-28. 

" Let them alone : they are blind guides. And if the blind guide the 
blind, both shall fall into a pit." — xv. 14. 

" The husbandmen, when they saw the son, said among themselves, This 
is the heir ; come, let us kill him, and take his inheritance." — xxi. 38. 

" Yea, they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them 
on men's shoulders ; but they themselves will not move them with their 
finger." — xxiii. 4. 

• •••••••• 

" Leave the dead to bury their own dead ; but go thou and publish 
abroad the Kingdom of God." — Luke ix. 60. 

" When the strong man fully armed guardeth his own court, his goods 
are in peace. . . . The unclean spirit when he is gone out of the 
man, passes through waterless places, seeking rest ; and finding none, he 
saith, I will turn back unto my house whence I came out. And when he 
is come, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to 
him seven other spirits more evil than himself; and they enter in and 
dwell there : and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first." 
— xi. 2i t 24-26, 

" We will not that this man reign over us." — xix. 14. 

......... 

" Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born anew, he can- 
not see the Kingdom of God." — John Hi. 3. 

1 " Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your 
will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the 
truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he 
speaketh of his own : for he is a liar, and the father thereof." — viii. 44. 

" Those of the Pharisees which were with Him heard these things, and 
said unto Him, Are we also blind? Jesus said unto them, If ye were 
blind, ye would have no sin : but now ye say, We see : your sin remaineth." 
— ix. 40, 41. 



Ill 

THE EXISTING ANARCHY 

Our Lord's references to the Kingdom of God reveal it 
in four ways. First He spoke of it as existing. The fact 
of the Divine government was ever present to His mind ; 
He always spoke in the evident consciousness of the throne 
of God, and of the fact that God is Ruler in the universe. 
He also spoke of the Kingdom of God as come to men in 
some new and special way, as the result of His own com- 
ing ; and so indicated the redemptive nature of His mission. 
He also referred to the Kingdom of God as having to be 
established by processes, and by that reference revealed the 
responsibility of the Church in the interest of the Kingdom 
of God. He finally spoke of the Kingdom as yet to come, 
and in so doing foretold the consummating activity ; and so 
revealed the way of the ultimate realization of His ideals in 
human history, and upon this earth. 

The implicate of each of the last three of these concep- 
tions is that of existing anarchy. The Kingdom nigh is the 
Kingdom unrealized. The Kingdom in process is the 
Kingdom postponed. The Kingdom to come is the King- 
dom not come. It is perfectly evident, from all these refer- 
ences of our Lord, that His outlook upon the world was first, 
fundamentally, and always, that of the whole universe as 
under the government of God, and that in certain senses it 
cannot escape therefrom. But His outlook was also clearly 
that of One Who saw anarchy instead of order ; a Kingdom 
not recognized, not yielded to ; unrealized therefore as to its 
benefits and its glories. To the eyes of our Lord all men 
were in the grasp of the Divine authority, but not willingly 

231 



232 The Teaching of Christ 

so. Consequently He saw that their experience of the 
Divine authority was not according to the first intention of 
God for men. 

Our present theme, then, is that of the existing anarchy as 
He saw it. While He clearly saw the ultimate, He as clearly 
saw the immediate ; and His references, and His specific 
teachings, will show us what He saw, and what He thought 
concerning the anarchy in the midst of which He lived and 
wrought and taught. We shall attempt to group our ex- 
amination of this teaching of Jesus concerning the existing 
anarchy under three headings. First, its manifestations as 
He described them; secondly, its reasons as He revealed 
them ; and finally its appeal as He was conscious thereof. 

First, then, as to the manifestations of anarchy in the 
midst of which our Lord lived. I will first summarize, and 
then refer to some of His sayings, which will help us in this 
matter. It is evident that our Lord, looking out upon men, 
saw that they were actuated by false ideals concerning the 
Kingdom of God. As has been seen in an earlier medita- 
tion, the phrase was no new phrase. They were quite 
familiar with it in the Rabbinical teachings of that time, and 
it was also incorporated in the Scriptures of the Old 
Covenant. He was in the midst of men who had some idea 
of the Kingdom of God ; or even though they had no idea 
of that Kingdom, they had ideas concerning kingdoms and 
governments and authorities ; and the teachings of Jesus 
clearly reveal that these were false ideas. His teaching also 
reveals men as living under false rule. Finally, He saw 
men not merely holding false ideals, and living under false 
rule, but characterized by persistent perversity, in spite of 
the light He came to bring. 

As to the false ideals. The first revelation of His teach- 
ing in the matter is to be discovered in the account of His 
temptation, especially in the form in which that account is 



The Existing Anarchy 233 

given to us in the Gospel according to Matthew. Not that 
here we have specific teaching, but that in the account of our 
Lord's own temptation, and in the process of that tempta- 
tion, as we watch Him and listen to Him, we have a revela- 
tion of what He thought concerning human ideals as He 
found them in the world. It is necessary that we should 
first be reminded of the place of the temptation, and its re- 
lation to this whole subject of the Kingdom of God. 

The Gospel according to Matthew is preeminently the Gos- 
pel of the Kingdom of God. The key-note of the ministry 
of John as it is recorded in that Gospel was, "Repent ye; for 
the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." l He foretold the coming 
of the King ; One " mightier than I " 2 said he, is coming after 
me, whose shoe latchets I am not worthy to stoop down and 
unloose. He also described the ministry of the coming King 
as that of One Who would come with the fan and the fire to 
destroy the things of evil, and to realize the things of goodness. 

Following this story of the ministry of the Baptist we have 
the account of the first appearance of the King. He came 
to John, submitted to his baptism, and was immediately at- 
tested of heaven, and anointed by the Spirit for His mission 
in the world. The first event following that anointing was 
that of His temptation. Thus it is seen that the temptation 
had its relation, not merely to the personal life of Jesus, but 
also to His mission in the interest of the Kingdom of God. 
That becomes patent when we consider the ultimate goal of 
the adversary's attack. Luke, telling the story, places the 
temptations in another order, for which he had a special 
reason. Personally I have no doubt that Matthew gives us 
the actual order. That goal is reached in the third tempta- 
tion, in which he showed to the anointed King all the king- 
doms of the world and the glory of them, and said : These 
will I give Thee for one moment's homage rendered to me. 
1 Matt. iii. 2. 2 Ibid., iii. n. 



234 The Teaching of Christ 

Beginning with the Man upon the physical side of His being, 
he offered Him bread as the solenecessary sustenance of life; 
proceeding to the spiritual essential, he suggested that He 
should traffic with His relationship and tempt God ; until 
reaching the ultimate purpose of the being of the Man, His 
vocation, he suggested that He should obtain the end, reach 
the goal, possess the Kingdoms, by the method of yielding a 
moment's homage to himself. 

Now, in that movement we have the Master's conception 
of the false ideals of evil, concerning a world kingdom, re- 
vealed. The first temptation was an appeal to the material, 
and the answer of Jesus was : " Man shall not live by bread 
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of 
God." ' The second temptation was to the spiritual, and to 
spiritual selfishness, and the answer of Jesus was : " Thou 
shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." 2 The final temptation 
was directed against the vocational position of Jesus, and sug- 
gested the gathering of the kingdoms of the world into one 
by political intrigue ; and the answer of Jesus was, " Get thee 
hence, Satan : for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord 
thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." 3 

In contrast to these affirmations of Christ, which consti- 
tuted the bed-rock of His own strength, and the very fortress 
of His victory, we find His conception of the false ideals 
concerning the Kingdom which men entertained. The first 
revelation is that of the materialistic ideal which declares 
that all man needs is bread ; which makes bread a basis for a 
kingdom. Men were acting as though a kingdom depended 
upon things material alone. Of course this is the reduction 
of the philosophy to its simplest formula. Nearer the end 
of His ministry there came a day when multitudes would 
fain have made Him King, because He had fed them ; and 
He declined to be crowned King upon that basis. 

1 Matt. iv. 4. a Ibid. t iv. 7. s y Ibid. t iv. 10. 



The Existing Anarchy 235 

Secondly, the false ideal of selfishness is exposed ; the ideal 
that within the Kingdom, if you recognize spiritual things, 
they are to be recognized in order to the enrichment and the 
comfort of those who receive them. That was the central 
thought. 

Finally the ideal of political intrigue, the suggestion that 
by diplomatic arrangement and compromise kingdoms may 
be federated into a kingdom. 

Turning from that very brief glance at the temptation, to 
the Manifesto of the King uttered in Galilee, we recognize 
how entirely opposed it is to the conceptions which men held 
at that time ; and indeed, how entirely opposed it is to the 
conceptions which men still have, as to what a world king- 
dom ought to be. From that Manifesto I take three very 
familiar sayings. First the key-note, " Blessed are the poor 
in spirit : for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." ' When 
dealing with law He declared that law is spiritual, and that 
there is no morality which is final and sufficient, other than 
the morality inspired by religion. Concerning anxiety He 
bade His subjects not to be anxious what they shall eat, or 
what they shall drink, or how they shall be clothed ; but to be 
anxious about the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. 

To examine these ideals is at once to discover how false 
are the ideals of men. " Blessed are the poor in spirit : for 
theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. " 1 Do men even yet be- 
lieve that the Kingdom of God is to be possessed and estab- 
lished by poverty of spirit in the sense in which our Lord 
used the word ? Morality must be spiritual. There is no 
challenge to immorality other than religion. Men endeavour 
to challenge immorality by all sorts of traditions, rules, and 
regulations; and to check vulgarities by legislation. Men are 
overwhelmingly anxious about the things of to-morrow, and 
about the material necessities of to-day. 

1 Matt. v. 3. 



236 The Teaching of Christ 

As Jesus looked out upon His age He saw these false 
ideals mastering men, holding them in their grasp, condition- 
ing their attitudes and their activities. The persistent op- 
position to His teaching from the commencement of His 
public ministry until the tragedy of Calvary, is a revelation 
of the accuracy of His measurement of these ideals. Why 
did they crucify our Lord ? Asking the question, — not as 
within that determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, 
to which we shall have to make reference again ere we have 
done with the subject of the Kingdom; — but purely as 
within the experiences and the doings of the hour in which 
He lived, we have to reply, simply because they would not 
accept His ideals. He was a Teacher contradicting all the 
conceptions upon which they were basing conduct; saying 
to them, Repent, change your mind ; your deeds are wrong 
because your outlook is wrong, and your conceptions are 
wrong. They would not hear and obey ; and the only 
alternative from their standpoint was that of silencing His 
voice, and putting Him away. 

He revealed in His teaching, not only that men were 
actuated by false ideals, but that they were living under a 
false rule. It is never to be lost sight of that every stern 
word of Jesus, and all His rebukes were reserved for the 
rulers ; and all the way through His ministry we discover, 
not their opposition alone, but also His criticism of their 
position. He was perpetually, in direct word and in para- 
ble, unmasking them, attempting to show the men of His 
age wherein the rulers failed ; and how they were all under 
false rule, the rulers themselves being under the rule of 
their own false ideals. 

In one of His final parables uttered to the rulers He re- 
vealed the principle of all false authority as He said, " Let 
us . . . take His inheritance." * So said the rulers 

» Matt. xxi. 38. 



The Existing Anarchy 237 

according to Jesus ; and the false principle of all false 
authority was that of self-centred consideration. In this 
view the Lord's teaching harmonized perfectly with the 
prophetic denunciations in the Old Testament Scriptures. 
" Woe unto the shepherds of Israel ! " ' Why ? Because 
when they should feed the sheep, they are feeding them- 
selves. When they should shepherd and guard the sheep, 
they are seeking to be guarded themselves. It was Homer 
who said all kings are shepherds of the people. One 
wonders sometimes if it would not have been more true to 
human history if Homer had said all kings ought to be 
shepherds of the people. But men seek positions of author- 
ity, not in the interests of the governed, but in their own 
interest. 

Consequently the method was a false method. Yet a 
little later in His ministry, in that final hour of conflict 
with the rulers, He exposed these methods when He said, 
" They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and 
lay them on men's shoulders ; but they themselves will not 
move them with their finger." 2 I go back to Isaiah for 
illustration of the difference between the rule of God and 
the false reign of idols. A man takes and cuts down a 
tree, and uses part for purposes of his own need, and with 
the residue he maketh him an idol ; and then he carries his 
idol. Jehovah God carries men who serve Him. That is 
the difference. They, the false rulers, bind burdens on 
others. The God Who is the one Ruler bids men roll 
their burden on Him. 

So that our Lord revealed the fact that according to His 
conception, when lawmakers make laws that are burdens 
that men have to carry, it is entirely contrary to the first 
principles of law within the Kingdom of God. And to go 
back to an earlier passage in Matthew, according to the 
1 Ezek. xxxiv. 2. 2 Matt, xxiii. 4. 



238 The Teaching of Christ 

teaching of Jesus, what was the issue of this false rule, 
whose principle was selfishness, whose method was that of 
binding burdens ? When He beheld the multitude as sheep 
without a shepherd He saw those multitudes " distressed 
. . . scattered " -, 1 fainting, harried by wolves, fleeced 
and homeless, none to care for them, or to bind their wounds. 
The issue of false rule is the distress and the scattering of 
the people. Only remember that while the picture as our 
Lord saw it must ever appeal to our compassion also, yet 
no one else saw the people in that condition. The people 
then were as satisfied as are the people of London to-day. 
The people were just as sure they were doing well, as are 
the people in our own times, who are independent of the 
Kingdom of God. It was only the King, Who saw the 
Kingdom of God as it ought to be, Who also understood 
the real ruin and degradation of men. 

The final manifestation of anarchy to which our Lord 
referred was not merely that men had false ideals, and that 
they were living under a false rule, and exercising a false 
rule, but that they were perverse. In the parable of the 
pounds we discover our Lord's central conception of exist- 
ing anarchy. The reason of the parable is given in the 
words, " As they heard these things, He added and spake a 
parable, because He was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they 
supposed that the Kingdom of God was immediately to ap- 
pear." 2 At the heart of the parable we find these words : 
u His citizens hated him, and sent an embassage after him, 
saying, We will not that this man reign over us." 3 His 
disciples and others thought that the Kingdom of God would 
immediately appear. He said to them in effect: The 
Kingdom of God cannot appear. Behold the anarchy. 
Look at the condition of affairs. The citizens of the 
Kingdom will not have the King; they will reject the 
1 Matt. ix. 36. 2 Luke xix. 1 1-27. 3 Ibid., xix. 14. 



The Existing Anarchy 239 

King; they will cast the King out. That was His out- 
look upon the supreme difficulty, that of the perversity of 
the human heart, having its own false ideal, exercising and 
submitting to its own false rule, and perverse. 

Until this hour that is the difficulty. It is the final diffi- 
culty. False ideals are still governing men. False rule is 
still being exercised and submitted to. Ideals entirely at 
variance with the ideals of the Kingdom of God as our 
Lord revealed them ; a rule entirely out of harmony with 
the rule of God as made clear to us in the person of our 
Lord. But the supreme difficulty is that men are perverse ; 
that they are still saying, We will not have this man to 
reign over us. We shall never be able to establish the 
Kingdom of God until that perversity is dealt with. Until 
that perversity in some way is overcome ; until the will of 
man is turned into harmony with the will of God ; we shall 
never establish the Kingdom of God in the world. 

Now rapidly let me gather up His teaching concerning 
the reasons of this anarchy. We may summarize them 
thus : — Blindness ; spiritual slavery ; and spiritual death. 

Blindness. His very first reference to the Kingdom is 
recorded in these words, " Except a man be born anew, he 
cannot see the Kingdom of God." ' He explicitly de- 
clared the fact of this blindness to the disciples, when upon 
one occasion referring to the rulers He said, " They are 
blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both shall 
fall into a pit." 2 And again in holy satire, when in con- 
flict with the Pharisees, He said to them, " If ye were 
blind, ye would have no sin : but now ye say, We see : 
your sin remaineth " ; 3 a revelation of the fact that whereas 
there was blindness, it had become willful blindness in the 
presence of the light that He had brought to men on the 
subject of the Kingdom of God. Men do not see the 
1 John iii. 3. a Matt. xv. 14. 3 John ix. 40, 41. 



240 The Teaching of Christ 

Kingdom of God, and blind guides are leading blind pe le, 
with the result that all fall into the pit. And wherever ae 
light of His revelation has come, men are willfully bliiiu'j 
not all, of course, for there were those around the Lord 
who were walking in the light, and were obedient thereto, 
and had healing, and their sight came. 

But the revelation that our Lord in His teaching made 
of the reason of the anarchy goes deeper still. He declared, 
in symbol and parable and by explicit word, that men are 
in spiritual slavery. In answer to the charge of complicity 
with Beelzebub which they made against Him, He said, 
" When the strong man fully armed guardeth his own court, 
his goods are in peace." * That was His picture of the 
times. The strong man fully armed was Satan ; guarding 
his own court, his goods were in peace. But when a 
stronger than he comes, he dispossesses the strong man. 
That was our Lord's claim for Himself, that He was stronger 
than Satan. He looked at the Pharisees, the rulers, and the 
people, and He said, Here is the reason of your blindness. 
You are under the dominion of Satan ; a strong man armed 
holds you fast and safely ; and there is no breaking away from 
that bondage unless a stronger than he come to deliver you. 

In continuation of that parable He spoke another, that 
weird parable of the empty house, the house from which 
the evil spirit had been dislodged, but which finding no new 
tenant, the evil spirit returned with seven other spirits, and 
whose last state was worse than the first. 2 That gives us 
our Lord's view of men as under the mastery of evil spirits. 
At last He said to the men who were opposing Him, in 
terms so explicit as to be full of terror until this time, " Ye 
are of your father the devil," " a murderer from the begin- 
ning," "a liar and the father thereof"; 3 therefore you 
murder and you lie. 

1 Luke xi. 21. a Ibid., xi. 24-26. 3 John viii. 44. 



The Existing Anarchy 241 

us looked out, and He saw false ideals, false rule, per- 
ve ty, and why ? Because men were blind, and could not 
Sew. And why ? Because they were mastered by evil, by 
evil spirits, by spiritual antagonisms. That teaching was 
revolutionary in His day, and it is still ; and it is because 
we have lost sight of it, that we do not understand how to 
deal with the problems that confront the Christian Church. 

Finally our Lord taught that men are blind and in spir- 
itual slavery. They are spiritually dead. One word is 
enough, that startling word of Jesus, so easily read, but so 
searching, how when a man said to Him under a holy im- 
pulse, " Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father," 
He replied, " Leave the dead to bury their own dead." ' 
That father was not physically dead. That was not a re- 
quest to remain to a funeral. It was a request to remain 
for years, perhaps, to take care of his father. Christ's out- 
look upon men is that they are spiritually dead, because 
severed from the life and from the virtue that come from 
fellowship with God ; in anarchy, because under a spiritual 
domination which is evil. 

And so finally what appeal did anarchy make to Him ? 
He saw it clearly, and He had come to establish the King- 
dom of God. In order to do that, what were the things 
needed in view of the anarchy ? First that there should be 
a clear revelation of true authority. All we have said as to 
blindness reveals this. Read once more in the eleventh 
chapter of Matthew the paragraph on John in prison ; and 
immediately following it, on the unreasonableness of the 
generation ; and immediately following it, on the unre- 
pentant cities. It moves on until Christ said, " I thank 
Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou 
didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, 
and didst reveal them unto babes : yea, Father, for so it was 

1 Luke ix. 59, 60. 



242 The Teaching of Christ 

well-pleasing in Thy sight." And then turning from ad- 
dress to heaven, He faced the multitude in their blindness, 
and He said, " No one knoweth the Son, save the Father ; 
neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to 
whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him. Come unto 
Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden." * In that 
general survey we discover that Christ claimed to be able to 
reveal to men the true authority, in order that they might 
be led back to submission thereto. 

But that was not enough. Not merely does anarchy ask 
for the revelation of the true authority ; it asks for power 
to dispossess, and to repossess. It asks for the Stronger 
than the strong man armed, in order that the strong man 
armed may be despoiled. It asks for a tenant to indwell 
the house ; for it is not enough to cast the evil spirit out, 
and leave the house swept and garnished. There must be 
an Indweller, Who shall hold and possess it ; or else seven 
other evil spirits may enter in, and make the last case worse 
than the first. Anarchy is asking for some One mighty 
enough to master the strong man armed, and dwell in the 
house, and hold it as against his power. 

Consequently anarchy demands spiritual renewal. Men 
cannot see the Kingdom. Then they must have life, be 
born from above, in which life shall come new vision. 
They cannot enter it. Then they need new life, in order 
that in the power of that life they may enter in, and abide. 

The Lord saw the rule of God, and the realm over 
which that rule might be exercised, and the glorious re- 
sults that would follow therein ; but He also saw the rule 
disobeyed, because another rule was obeyed ; He saw the 
realm desolate over which God should reign ; and conse- 
quently all the gracious results absent in human life indi- 
vidually,' socially, nationally, and racially. Therefore He 

1 Matt. xi. 25-28. 



The Existing Anarchy 243 

knew that in order to establish the rule, the anarchy must 
be dealt with, not superficially, but radically. 

How far is all this true to-day ? How far is it true to- 
day that there is an existing anarchy, whose manifestations 
are false ideals, false rule, perversity, whose reasons are hu- 
man blindness, the dominion of evil spiritual forces, and 
consequently spiritual death ? In the measure in which 
these things abide, they are still making their appeal to the 
King, asking for authority, asking for a power that operates 
towards the Kingdom of God, and asking for life that men 
may see and enter in. 



IV. THE REDEMPTIVE PROCESSES-— 
THE CROSS 



« Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God."— Matthew xvi. 16. 

" I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven : and what- 
soever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever 
thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." — xvi. ig. 

" From that time began Jesus to show unto His disciples, how that He 
must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief 
priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up."— 
xvi. 21. 

" Verily I say unto you, There be some of them that stand here, which 
shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in His 
Kingdom." — xvi. 28. 

" And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with 
Him. And Peter answered, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us 
to be here : if Thou wilt, I will make here three tabernacles ; one for 
Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. "While he was yet speaking, 
behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them : and behold, a voice out of the 
cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased ; hear 
ye Him." — xvii. 3-3. 

" Verily I say unto you, Except ye turn, and become as little children, 
ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of heaven. Whosoever there- 
fore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in 
the Kingdom of heaven." — xviii. 3, 4. 

s • * • • • • • • 

" Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that 
I may take it again. No one taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down 
of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it 
again. This commandment received I from My Father." — John x. if, 18. 

& " Sir, we would see Jesus. . . . The hour is come, that the Son of 
Man should be glorified. . . « Father, glorify Thy name. There 
came therefore a voice out of heaven saying, I have both glorified it, and 
will glorify it again. . . . Now is the judgment of this world : now 
shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from 
the earth, will draw all men unto Myself." — xii. 21, 23, 28,31,32. 

~ " My Kingdom is not of this world : if My Kingdom were of this world, 
then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews : 
but now is My Kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore said unto Him, 
Art Thou a King then ? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a King. 
To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world, 
that I should bear witness unto the truth." — xviii. 36,37. 



IV 
THE REDEMPTIVE PROCESSES— THE CROSS 

We now proceed to consider the teaching of our Lord 
concerning the redemptive processes for the establishment 
of the Kingdom of God on earth. 

The contrast between the fundamental conception of 
Jesus as to the Kingdom of God, and His view of the ex- 
isting anarchy is complete. On the one hand He saw 
clearly what the rule of God over the realm of the whole 
earth and all men would be ; and how glorious the results, 
harmonizing with His nature of holiness and love. But on 
the other hand He saw that rule of God unknown or disre- 
garded, and the realm consequently in chaos ; with results of 
abounding pollution, and all that was contrary to love. He 
claimed, as we have seen, that in His coming the Kingdom was 
brought to men. His mission then most evidently was that 
of dealing with the anarchy, in order to restore the Kingdom. 

We turn now to consider His own teaching as to the 
processes by which this is to be accomplished. Let it be 
immediately recognized that in all His teaching there is no 
trace of a tremor or a doubt. He never spoke speculatively 
as to the ultimate issue. He moved quietly and calmly for- 
ward, both in word and deed, towards a consummation of 
which He Himself had no doubt. Keenly conscious of the 
anarchy, protesting against it, thundering against it, weep- 
ing over it ; He nevertheless walked ever in the light of 
the glory that is to be ; the calm assurance filling His heart 
from the beginning of His ministry to the end, that at last, 
though a wide compass first be fetched, the Kingdom of 
God must be established. 

247 



248 The Teaching of Christ 

In His teaching we have very clear evidences of His own 
conceptions as to how that consummation is to be reached. 
That teaching may thus be summarized. He declared that 
the Kingdom can only be established by the way of the 
Cross. He declared that the instrument through which He 
would move towards the establishment of the Kingdom 
would be His Church. He declared that throughout the 
processes there would be a persistence of very definite and 
severe conflict. He declared that these processes would be 
completed by the crisis of His advent, in order to the ulti- 
mate establishment of the Kingdom. 

Our present subject is that of His teaching concerning 
the way of the Cross. The facts concerning our Lord's 
teaching on this matter are : first, that after the confession 
of Peter at Caesarea Philippi He explicitly declared the 
necessity for the Cross; secondly, that this necessity was 
constantly reaffirmed during the days following that first 
declaration ; and thirdly, that in all His subsequent special 
teaching of His disciples, the principle of the Cross was 
evidently in His mind, and illustrated in many ways. 

Let us take first, the explicit statements ; and secondly, 
some of the instances of illustration. 

First, then, as to the explicit statements of our Lord con- 
cerning the Cross. With the details we are not now con- 
cerned. They are perfectly plain and unmistakable. Our 
business is that of observing the relation of these statements 
to His Kingdom ideals and purposes. For this purpose we 
may confine our attention to the first occasion, that of 
Caesarea Philippi, for all subsequent explicit declarations 
were exactly of the same nature. 

Let us, then, first carefully observe the facts of relation- 
ship between the Cross and the Kingdom as they are revealed 
in this teaching; proceeding in the second place to consider 
the reason of that relationship. 



The Redemptive Processes — The Cross 249 

First, then, as to the facts. The whole pronouncement at 
Caesarea Philippi must always be borne in mind when any 
part of it is under consideration. To take some one declara- 
tion, and not to consider it in the light of the whole, may 
be to misinterpret it entirely. This was the hour of the great 
confession, the hour in which in answer to the challenge of 
the Master, Peter, spokesman of the rest of the disciples, 
said to Him, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living 
God." ■ That was the confession of a Hebrew, that Jesus 
Christ was the Messiah ; the One for Whom his people had 
been waiting for centuries and millenniums. It was a con- 
fession that at last the King had appeared, Who had been 
foretold by prophets, seers, and psalmists in bygone days. 
At last He had come, the King ; and He had come for the 
establishment of the Kingdom. That was certainly the 
meaning of the confession from the standpoint of the He- 
brew. u Thou art the Messiah," not Elijah, not Jeremiah, 
not John the Baptist, not one of the prophets ; but the One 
for Whose coming all had looked, and the purpose of Whose 
coming all had in greater or less degree indicated, in the 
course of their prophetic ministry. Thou art the King. 
Thou art the Messiah, the Son of the living God. 

Now observe what Christ said in answer to that confession. 
He declared four things in close connection : first, the secret of 
the Church ; secondly, the necessity for the Cross ; thirdly, 
the inevitability of a conflict ; and finally, the certainty of the 
crisis of His own second advent. The first matter to be noted 
is that of the unity of these things in the declaration of Jesus. 

Confining ourselves to the subject particularly before us, 
we notice in the course of this teaching two definite refer- 
ences to the Kingdom ; first when He said to Peter con- 
cerning the Church, " I will give unto thee the keys of the 
Kingdom of heaven " ; 2 and again, when at the close of the 
1 Matt. xvi. 16. * Ibid., xvi. 19. 



250 The Teaching of Christ 

discourse He uttered the words : " Verily I say unto you, 
There be some of them that stand here, which shall in no 
wise taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in 
His Kingdom." 1 The whole thought of Jesus was moving 
within the realm of the Kingdom of God. The Cross is 
not something as apart from the Kingdom. It was most 
evidently and intimately associated in the mind of our Lord 
with the Kingdom purpose. 

He declared that in order to the establishment of that 
Kingdom He must go to the Cross. The must that declared 
the necessity for the Cross declared the necessity for the Cross 
in the interest of the Kingdom. The joy that was set before 
Him was that of the Kingdom established, the establishment 
of the rule of God over the realm of the whole earth, with 
the gracious results of holiness and love, and the consequent 
blessedness of humanity ; and He distinctly said that in order 
to reach that goal, He must go by the way of the Cross. 

Reverently then, let us press a little closer to these asser- 
tions, and inquire the reason. How far does this particular 
passage and these repeated explicit declarations throw light 
upon this subject ? The King said that He must go by the 
way of the Cross, thus affirming the necessity for it. Does 
He give us in any measure to see the reason for that 
necessity ? The answer is self-evident. The reason why 
He must go by the way of the Cross is first of all to be dis- 
covered in the anarchy in the midst of which He lived. It 
is secondly to be discovered in the authority under which 
He was acting in His mission in the world. And finally 
it is explained by His activity under that authority in 
the midst of that anarchy. 

The anarchy is focussed, and focussed in a way that I 
think we are apt to see but dimly, in this first explicit dec- 
laration of our Lord. He said the Son of Man " must go 

1 Matt. xvi. 28. 



The Redemptive Processes — The Cross 251 

to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief 
priests^ and scribes." l These were all distinctly named by 
our Lord at that point, because in the naming of them He 
covered the whole ground of the forces that were antago- 
nistic to Him and to the Kingdom of God. The Sanhedrim 
was composed of these different orders, all exercising 
authority ; the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes. First 
we have what to-day we should speak of as the lay authority, 
or the civic authority, that of the elders. The authority 
of the Jewish State, as it existed at that moment in Jerusa- 
lem, was vested in them. Then we have the religious 
authority of the hour as it was vested in the chief priests. 
And finally we have the ethical authority of the hour as it 
was vested in the order of the scribes. Now the Lord dis- 
tinctly declared that all these phases of authority that 
gathered within the Sanhedrim would be against Him, and 
that at their hands He must suffer. The lay authority of 
the elders, the religious authority of the chief priests, the 
ethical authority of the scribes ; all were against Him. All 
authority was degraded, all authority was false, and all 
authority was antagonistic. He being the Representative of 
the Divine authority, the King Himself appointed of God 
over the Kingdom of God, faced the opposition to that 
Kingdom as it was focussed in those who were themselves 
in authority. The causes of their opposition we need not 
now deal with. We have already done so when speaking 
of the existing anarchy. The results of the reign of these 
men, of their rule and their authority, were manifested in the 
condition of the people, over which Christ mourned. They 
were as sheep, scattered, fleeced, harried, having no shepherd. 
Into that atmosphere, which was the atmosphere of anarchy, 
of antagonism to the reign of God, He went. It was in view 
of these things that He declared He must go to the Cross. 

1 Matt. xvi. 21. 



252 The Teaching of Christ 

But we are immediately conscious of the fact that this has 
not brought us to the deepest note as to the necessity for 
the Cross. Why not leave these anarchists to work out 
their own anarchy to its end, which must inevitably be 
destruction ? Why the must of Jesus ? We give the 
central answer when we declare that the necessity for the 
Cross was not the anarchy alone, but the authority under 
which He was moving. That is clearly revealed in His 
own words, not recorded by Matthew, but by John. 
" Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down 
My life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it away 
from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to 
lay it down, and I have authority to take it again. This 
commandment received I from My Father." * By that dec- 
laration of the Lord Himself we learn that the necessity 
for the Cross was created by the nature of God, which is 
love ; and that the compulsion of His determination to es- 
tablish His reign of love was the central factor in the must 
of Jesus. It may be said, and with a partial accuracy, that 
the reason for the Cross was the necessity for the establish- 
ment of righteousness ; that the profoundest reason for the 
Cross is to be discovered in the holiness of God. But might 
not the principle of righteousness have been satisfied, if we 
take the principle of righteousness alone, by the sweeping 
out of the things that offended, by the destruction and anni- 
hilation of all evil men and things ? I affirm that this prin- 
ciple might have been satisfied in that way. But when be- 
hind righteousness, inspiring it, is love, then the necessity 
is created for dealing with anarchy, and with the men 
steeped therein, in such a way as to save the men. u This 
commandment received I from My Father." The King 
moved towards the focussed manifestation and expression of 
anarchy in the opposition]of elders, chief priests, and scribes ; 

1 John x. 17, 18. 



The Redemptive Processes — The Cross 253 

and He moved towards it, because it must be dealt with in 
such a way as to save the men ; and it must be dealt with 
in that way because God is love. His determination was 
to establish anew the kingdom of love and light and life 
where anarchy reigned, and amongst men who were suffer- 
ing as the result of sin. 

We have the explanation of the necessity most perfectly 
revealed in the actual activity, wherein, again to refer to the 
word in John, He laid down His life. In the hour of that 
Cross He experienced the ultimate of anarchy. Sin ex- 
pressed itself completely and finally when it flung itself 
against Him. In the Cross I see the unmasking and un- 
veiling of sin as it came to its most appalling and final ex- 
pression in human history. There is no other problem of 
evil so terrific as the Cross. In the annals of history there 
was never any such naked, awful manifestation of evil as 
the action that put Him on the Cross ; and to that bursting 
of the storm of evil He bared His own bosom ; He gathered 
all into His own Person. That is the holy of holies ! That 
is the central and constant mystery ! I cannot apprehend 
all that transaction, because I cannot apprehend the Person 
who accomplished it. 

If I had no more than His declaration of intention, and 
the fact of the Cross ; if I had seen Him move thus hero- 
ically to face the anarchy, to gather its ultimate issue into 
His own heart, and nothing more ; His heroism would be to 
me finer and more wonderful than the mind of man had 
ever dreamed ; but neither for myself, nor for the world 
should I have either light, or hope, or expectation of ulti- 
mate results. The Cross would be a forlorn hope, the 
heroism of an uttermost despair, the splendid dream of a 
misguided enthusiast, and nothing more. But when, ac- 
cording to His own constantly repeated affirmation that He 
would rise again, I see Him rise again; then I discover that 



254 The Teaching of Christ 

in the mystery of that Cross, He was not only the Sin- 
bearer ; in the activities of that dark hour, He was the Sin- 
destroyer ; in some infinite transaction beyond human power 
of thought, He destroyed the works of the devil. That is 
proved by the fact that He emerged from the dark hour 
triumphant in the glory of His resurrection. So, by these 
activities, I have an interpretation of the meaning of His 
declaration as to the necessity for the Cross. In order to 
establish the Kingdom He must Himself gather the sin to 
Himself, and deal with it, grapple with it, master it, nega- 
tive it ; and, emerging from the struggle victorious, com- 
municate life, in the power of which other souls shall be 
able to enter into the same struggle, and with a like result. 
Thus in order to establish the Kingdom of God in an in- 
dividual, He dealt with that which had destroyed the King- 
dom of God ; and created for men a new liberty of action, 
both spiritual and moral. He must go to the Cross in order 
to reach the Kingdom, because His Kingdom can never be 
finally established merely by the exercise of an iron rule that 
holds evil things in suppression. His Kingdom must be 
finally established, a Kingdom having within it no element 
that destroys, having within it no possibility of a new out- 
break of anarchy, or final destruction of the high purposes of 
God. Therefore He moved to that infinite mystery focussed 
in the dark hour on the green hill ; and there He took hold of 
the forces that had spoiled, and spoiled them; of the forces that 
had destroyed, to destroy them ; of the evil things that had 
wrought the ruin, in order to ruin them ; and thus provided the 
remedy for the individual soul, and ultimately for the race. 
From this all too rapid examination of the explicit state- 
ment and teaching, let us pass to glance at some instances of 
His illustration of the principle in His subsequent teaching. 
To make selections here is very difficult. We shall simply 
glance on a little way in this same Gospel of Matthew. 



The Redemptive Processes — The Cross 255 

What immediately followed ? The holy mount. Each 
evangelist giving the record of Caesarea Philippi gives also 
the record of the holy mount, and links the two events by the 
selfsame declaration : " There be some of them that stand 
here, which shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the 
Son of Man coming in His Kingdom. " ' There were far 
wider values in that declaration than I now suggest, but in 
that holy mount He gave some of them to see in picture 
something of the ultimate Kingdom. Let us then observe 
it, noticing only two things : the vision they beheld, and the 
voice to which they listened. What was the vision of the 
holy mount ? The central fact is, that the supreme inter- 
est of their glorified Lord was manifested in the subject of 
His converse with Moses and Elijah. Behold Him in His 
glory, His face as the sun shining in its strength, His very 
garments white and glistering ! Oh, the rapture of that hour 
when the three disciples looked upon Him in all the glory of 
His perfected humanity. In such an hour, of what did He 
think, of what did He speak ? " There appeared unto them 
Moses and Elijah talking with Him " ; 2 and Luke tells us 
that they talked of the exodus which He was about to ac- 
complish in Jerusalem. He talked with them of the very 
subject of which He had spoken to these men for the first 
time at Caesarea Philippi. He talked with them not of the 
death He was about to die merely. The subject was far 
more majestic and wonderful than that ; He talked of the 
exodus He was about to accomplish. He must go and suf- 
fer and be killed and be raised. He was going to accom- 
plish, not to be defeated ! He was not moving to Jerusalem 
as a Victim, but as a Victor. There, on the holy mount, 
the disciples heard Him talking about that victory ! 

Was there not at least a remarkable suggestiveness in the 
visitors whom they saw on the holy mount ? Moses, the 
1 Matt. xvi. 28. 2 Ibid., xvii. 3. 



256 The Teaching of Christ 

founder of the Theocracy. Elijah, who came into the midst 
of the period of the degenerate kingdom, and thundered 
against its degeneracy. The founder and the reformer talked 
with the King upon the holy mount of all He was about to 
do, which they had failed to do, and the way of accomplish- 
ment was realized to be that of the Cross. 

Then there came the voice to the disciples. When Peter 
said, " Lord, it is good for us to be here : if Thou wilt, I will 
make here three tabernacles ; one for Thee, and one for 
Moses, and one for Elijah," the voice replied, " This is My 
beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased ; hear ye Him." ■ 
It was a rebuking voice. It took them back to Caesarea 
Philippi. There had been six days of silence ; six days with 
no record of anything said between the Lord and these men. 
They had been afraid of the voice that had told of the Cross. 
They had now heard Christ speaking with Moses and Elijah 
of that Cross ; and the heavenly voice said, " This is My be- 
loved Son, in Whom I am well pleased ; hear ye Him." We 
have three records of that voice breaking the silence in the 
life of Jesus : once at the baptism in Jordan ; once here ; and 
once later, when the Greeks desired to see Him. Such Divine 
attestation always came when the Master was approaching the 
Cross in the interests of the Kingdom. When anointed as 
King He had consented to be numbered with the trans- 
gressors in baptism, as the symbol of His coming passion 
baptism; on the holy mount when in the glory of His own 
perfected humanity He talked with Moses and Elijah of the 
Cross as the way to the Kingdom ; and later when the Greeks 
came and said, " Sir, we would see Jesus," and Jesus said, 
41 The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified. 
. . . Father, glorify Thy name," then said the voice, 
" I have both glorified it and will glorify it again," and the 
Lord immediately declared, " Now is the judgment of this 

1 Matt. xvii. 4-5. 



The Redemptive Processes — The Cross 257 

world : now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And 
I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto 
Myself." ' All these illustrations reveal the fact that in His 
thinking and by His teaching, He was moving perpetually 
towards His Kingdom by the way of His Cross. 

Pass on through Matthew, and every page gleams with 
the same revelation. Was He talking to His own disciples 
about the way of entrance to His Kingdom, and greatness 
therein ? Then He told them that they must turn back and 
be as little children. 2 That is the way of the Cross. And 
if a man question this, let him practice the teaching, and he 
will discover that for a man to turn back to childhood is in- 
deed the way of the Cross. Did He talk to them about the 
way in which to end disorder as within the Kingdom ? Then 
He took the parable of the man who was forgiven a debt, 
and being forgiven, went out to exact the utmost penalty 
from his brother; and so was rearrested, and his own in- 
debtedness was claimed. 3 This is one of the most singularly 
fine illustrations of what the Cross is. When a man forgives 
debt what does he do ? He bears the loss resulting from 
another's wrong-doing. It is his personal loss, and he suf- 
fers it, in order to forgive. If God so forgive, by suffering 
loss on our behalf, He does it In order that we also may for- 
give, by suffering loss ; and if we will not so forgive, then 
He will rearrest us, and claim the utmost penalty. 

Or if presently He would speak to His disciples in answer 
to their request for power as He was on the way to Jerusalem, 
then He said, " Are ye able to drink the cup that I am about to 
drink?" And they said unto Him, "We are able." To 
which He replied that they should, and He admitted them 
to the place of spiritual authority and power; but He indi- 
cated that the way thereinto was the way of the Cross. 4 

1 John xii. 21, 23, 28, 31, 32. 8 Ibid., xviii. 23-35. 

a Matt, xviii. 3-4. 4 Ibid., xx. 17-28. 



258 The Teaching of Christ 

These are but instances. The principle runs through to 
the last conversation with Pilate. When Pilate said, " Art 
Thou a king then ? " He had said, " My Kingdom is not 
of this world . . . not from hence." * The fact that 
the Cross was necessary for the establishment of the Kingdom 
of truth is focussed in that conversation with Pilate. 

The teaching of Jesus is perfectly clear. It declares the 
indispensability of the Cross in His own mission and in the 
process, to the crisis and the consummation. And why ? 
Because by that principle of the Cross — which had its su- 
preme manifestation and activity in His own Person; — by 
that, and by that alone, sin is exhausted, negatived, destroyed; 
and by that principle, and that alone, through the victory 
over sin, righteousness is made possible. God's Kingdom 
must be so built that naught that defileth remains within. 

Is not the testimony of experience in harmony with this 
revealed teaching of Jesus ? Is the Kingdom of God ever 
set up in a human life except by the way of the Cross ? By 
the way of His Cross trusted in, and by our identification 
with that Cross in principle, whereby we die to the self-life, 
which is of the essence of anarchy, and rebellion ; we find 
our way back again into His Kingdom. And as that is the 
way in individual experience, it is also the true method for 
the ultimate establishment of His Kingdom. Always by the 
mystery of an apparent defeat will God's victories be won. 
Always by identification with such death as He died will life 
be liberated and become powerful. The Kingdom of God 
will only be established by the way of the Cross. 

1 John xviii. 36-37. 



V. THE REDEMPTIVE PROCESSES — 
THE CHURCH 



" And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, 
Simon Bar- Jonah : for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but 
My Father which is in heaven. And I also say unto thee, that thou art 
Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church ; and the gates of 
Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give unto thee the keys of the 
Kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be 
bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed 
in heaven." — Matthew xvi. ib-ig. 

" Who then is greatest in the Kingdom of heaven ? "—xviii. /. 

*' And if thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault between 
thee and him alone : if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But 
if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of 
two witnesses or three every word may be established. And if he refuse 
to hear them, tell it unto the Church : and if he refuse to hear the Church 
also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican. Verily I say 
unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in 
heaven : and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in 
heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as 
touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My 
Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together 
in My name, there am I in the midst of them." — xviii. 13-20. 

"Therefore is the Kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, 
which would make a reckoning with his servants." — xviii. 23. 

" When the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation concerning 
the two brethren. But Jesus called them unto Him, and said, Ye know 
that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exer- 
cise authority over them. Not so shall it be among you : but whosoever 
would become great among you shall be your minister ; and whosoever 
would be first among you shall be your servant : even as the Son of Man 
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a 
ransom for many." — xx. 24-28. 

" Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not 
only do what is done to the fig tree, but even if ye shall say unto this 
mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea, it shall be done. And 
all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." 
— xxi. 21, 22. 

" Therefore say I unto you, The Kingdom of God shall be taken away 
from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." 
—xxi. 43. 



" But be not ye called Rabbi : for One is your Teacher, and all ye are 
brethren. And call no man your father on the earth: for One is your 
Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters : for One is 
your Master, even the Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be 
your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled ; and 
whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted." — xxiii. 8-12. 

" I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, 
until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's Kingdom." 
— xxvi. 2g. 



« I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them 
now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you 
into all the truth: for He shall not speak from Himself; but what things 
soever He shall hear, these shall He speak : and He shall declare unto you 
the things that are to come." — John xvi. 12 1 ij. 



« They therefore, when they were come together, asked Him, saying, 
Lord, dost Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel ? And He said 
unto them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father 
hath set within His own authority. But ye shall receive power, when 
the Holy Ghost is come upon you : and ye shall be My witnesses both in 
Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of 
the earth."— Acts i. 6S. 



V 

THE REDEMPTIVE PROCESSES — 
THE CHURCH 

In order of time Christ mentioned His Church before His 
Cross. In order of history the Cross necessarily preceded 
the Church. 

Having considered His teaching as to the relation of the 
Cross to the Kingdom, we turn now to that which reveals 
the relation of the Church to the Kingdom. 

There has been a tendency in some modern teaching to 
place the idea of the Church and that of the Kingdom in 
opposition to each other. But they are intimately related, 
and so far as the teaching of our Lord Himself is concerned, 
during the days of His flesh, His references to the Church 
were entirely in the realm of His teaching concerning the 
Kingdom. He only referred to the Church as an instrument 
towards the establishment of the Kingdom in the world. 

Paul's teaching concerning the Church does not con- 
tradict that of our Lord. It goes very far beyond it. To 
Paul was committed what he himself described as the 
stewardship of the mystery of the Church, and through him 
the Spirit revealed eternal aspects of the Church's vocation 
at which our Lord Himself never hinted. These were 
among the things which the disciples of Christ could not 
bear during the time of His sojourn among them, and for 
the saying of which they had to wait for the coming of the 
Spirit, as He distinctly said : " I have yet many things to 
say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit 

263 



264 The Teaching of Christ 

when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you 
into all the truth." ■ 

Our present theme is not that of the Church in those larger 
aspects revealed in the course of the Pauline writings; but that 
of the Church in its relationship to the Kingdom of God, and 
that only as the subject is dealt with in the teaching of Jesus. 

The records give two explicit references to the Church 
in the teaching of our Lord ; and it is not without signifi- 
cance that both these are found in the Gospel according to 
Matthew, which is peculiarly the Gospel of the King and 
of the Kingdom. Had there been anything in the nature 
of contradiction between the idea of the Kingdom and that 
of the Church, the one evangelist most likely to omit ref- 
erence to the Church would have been the man whose 
passion was that of the Kingdom, and whose vision was 
that of the King. But this man alone has recorded, as 
evidently of supreme importance to his own thinking and 
in his own conception, the two occasions upon which our 
Lord referred definitely and explicitly to the Church. 

One of these two statements is singularly explicit as to 
the nature and office of the Church ; explicit, that is, in the 
sense of being a simple statement, waiting for further inter- 
pretation and development, but absolutely clear. " Upon 
this rock I will build My Church." 2 There is nothing 
more to be said concerning the nature of the Churchy if 
that one saying of Jesus be understood. In connection 
with that declaration He spoke of the twofold function of 
the Church in time, and in this world. First, " The gates 
of Hades shall not prevail against it." 2 It is an army at 
war, conquering, and leading an exodus out of all bondage, 
even that of death. Secondly, " I will give unto thee the 
keys of the Kingdom." 3 The Church is entrusted with 
responsibility concerning the ethic of heaven for the gov- 
1 John xvi. 12, 13. a Matt. xvi. 18. 8 Ibid., xvi. 19 



The Redemptive Processes — The Church 265 

ernment of earth. If these words of Jesus be perfectly 
apprehended, nothing remains to be said concerning either 
the nature or function of the Church so far as this world is 
concerned ; but even then there is no hint of the ultimate 
and eternal values which are revealed by the Spirit through 
the apostolic writings. 

The facts concerning our Lord's teaching on the subject 
are these. First, that after the confession of Peter He 
explicitly declared His purpose to build His Church ; and 
described its twofold function in the history of the world. 
Secondly, that after that announcement He repeatedly spoke 
to His disciples in a corporate capacity; and in so doing He 
assumed the Church, which He had declared it was His pur- 
pose to build. And thirdly, that a careful examination of these 
references will show how closely He connected the Church 
with the Kingdom, considering her ever as His instrument for 
its revelation to men, and its establishment in the world. 

After He had made His great declaration at Caesarea 
Philippi, He addressed them, not so much as individuals, 
but as a company, a fellowship, an assembly, a corporate 
body ; or to use His word, an Ecclesia, a called-out as- 
sembly of men. From that time He took for granted, not 
that they were already the Church in the full sense of the 
word, but that He was speaking to them as they would be, 
after the Pentecostal effusion whereby they should be bap- 
tized into new union with Himself, and so constitute the 
Church which He had announced His intention to build. 

That is seen in the group of Scriptures prefacing this 
meditation. In reading them we pass from Caesarea 
Philippi to the moment of the ultimate commission, noting 
some occasions on which, under various circumstances and 
with different intentions, the Lord spoke to His disciples in 
groups, as to a corporate body. There can be no selection 
of passages such as these, which on careful reading does 



266 The Teaching of Christ 

not impress the mind with the fact that while He spoke to 
them as a Church, He was always thinking of the King- 
dom, and was preparing them for very definite fulfillment 
of a position in the world in the interests of that Kingdom. 

Our consideration will gather around the explicit state- 
ments and the subsequent references ; dealing with the 
statements only in one regard, that of their relation to the 
Kingdom, and glancing at the references in the same way. 

We come first then to the scene at Caesarea Philippi, and 
listen once again to the words in this particular way. Our 
Lord's confession concerning His Church was made in an- 
swer to Peter's confession that He was the Messiah. The 
whole Messianic hope of the Hebrew people was connected 
with the establishment of the Kingdom of God. That 
they did not understand the nature of that ultimate King- 
dom is no argument as against this fact. That they also 
had become materialized in their thinking, and were failing 
to understand that the foundations of God's Kingdom, even 
in material things, must always be spiritual, does not affect 
the fact. They were all looking for His Kingdom ; and 
they were looking for the King Whose business it should 
be to establish that Kingdom. When at last, one of their 
number, after comradeship with Jesus for two years and a 
half, looked into His eyes and said, " Thou art the Mes- 
siah," ' it was a confession that at last there had appeared 
in the fullness of times, the King Whose business it should 
be to establish the Kingdom. 

Our Lord immediately accepted that confession ; with 
the pronouncement of blessing upon the man who had thus 
been illuminated by God, " Blessed art thou, Simon Bar- 
Jonah : for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto 
thee, but My Father which is in heaven " ; and then 
straightway proceeded to utter these words concerning the 

1 Matt." xvi. 1 6. 



The Redemptive Processes- — The Church 267 

Church : " Upon this rock I will build My Church." 
When one man out of the past economy, illuminated from 
above, said w Thou art the Messiah King " ; He said, On 
the basis of that confession, and upon that eternal fact on 
which the confession rests, I will build My Church. That 
was not a departure from the Kingdom ideal. It was not 
an abandonment of the Kingdom purpose. It was not a 
refusal of the Kingly crown. It was an acceptance of the 
Kingly crown, u Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah " ; and 
now that the crown is placed upon My brow, not merely 
in the Divine economy, but by the consent of one illu- 
minated soul, I will proceed; "I will build My Church; 
and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." l 

Observe also in this connection that the terms which He 
employed to describe the function of the Church are directly 
related to Kingdom ideas. What was the meaning of the 
declaration that the gates of Hades should not prevail against 
it ? Our Lord used two entirely different figures in such 
close connection that sometimes we have forgotten the 
difference between them. First : " I will build My 
Church." Secondly : " The gates of Hades shall not 
prevail against it." The first idea is that of the building 
of a house, using the word house in its largest sense. The 
second idea is that of an army marching forth to war. 

This second figure deals with the function of the Church, 
suggesting the presence of anarchy, and recognizing the op- 
posing forces of evil. We have considered in a previous 
study how perpetually the Lord was conscious of these 
facts ; how, notwithstanding that the vision of the Kingdom 
of God was ever before Him in all its glory and beauty, 
He was also conscious of the opposition of evil, and that 
He was exercising His Kingdom ministry in the midst of 
anarchy. On the first occasion of reference to His Church 

1 Matt. xvi. 17, 18. 



268 The Teaching of Christ 

He used a figure that suggests war with the anarchy, oppo- 
sition to the opposition : " The gates of Hades shall not 
prevail against it." 

Passing from that figure to the next, the terms again sug- 
gest and,lndeed, actually name the Kingdom idea : " I will 
give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven." l 
From the midst of the anarchy, appeal was made for a true 
authority. I do not suggest that the appeal was intelligent 
or volitional, but to Him it was none the less real. False 
rulers and false authority were influencing the people to 
evil courses, and ruining them ; and Jesus ever saw them 
distressed and scattered j and heard the unconscious appeal 
of their agony for a true authority. Therefore when He 
first spoke of His Church, He said to the representative of the 
Church, I will give thee the keys of the Kingdom. What you 
bind shall be bound. What you loose shall be loosed. All 
these terms move in the atmosphere of the Kingdom idea. 

Thus it is evident that when at Caesarea Philippi He was 
confessed King intelligently by Peter, Christ did not aban- 
don the thought of the Kingdom. As He declared that He 
would build His Church, it is clear that in His own mind 
the interest of the Kingdom was supreme ; and that the 
temporal value of the Church He would build would be 
that of its cooperation with Him, in His passion and His 
mission, for the establishment of the Kingdom of God. 

Let us take with equal brevity the next explicit reference. 
The preliminary question that led up to the reference was 
asked by His disciples: "Who then is greatest in the 
Kingdom of heaven?" 2 In answer to that enquiry He 
proceeded with His teaching, and ended His teaching by a 
parable, which commenced, u Therefore is the Kingdom 
of heaven likened unto." 3 

Between this question and parable, we find His second 
1 Matt. xvi. 19. a Ibid., xviii. I. 8 Ibid., xviii. 23. 



The Redemptive Processes — The Church 269 

reference to the Church. It was a mere allusion to what 
He had already said. The child was set in the midst of 
them, and He addressed them as a body of men in their 
more corporate capacity. The very act was symbolic. In 
the midst the child. Do not be afraid of the pictorial. See 
Him and His disciples, and the child in the midst. It was 
singularly suggestive of a corporate relationship, of a re- 
sponsibility which rested, not upon individuals, but upon 
the whole of them. Having put the child there, He pro- 
ceeded to talk to them about the Kingdom. He gave them 
the great law of Christian discipline, discipline within the 
Church. " If thy brother sin against thee, go, shew him his 
fault, between thee and him alone," l and do this in order to 
gain him, not in order to damn him ! And if you do not gain 
him, take one or two others of the same circle, always to gain 
him ; but if he will not hear the two, tell it to the Church, 

It was only a reference, an allusion ; but all the light of 
the declaration at Caesarea Philippi flashes upon the word, 
and we have the vision of this new entity, this corporate 
body. There they are, twelve men, with a child in the 
midst. And if he will not hear the Church, " let him be 
unto thee as the Gentile and the publican. " 2 What sort 
of man is the Gentile and the publican ? A man to be 
cursed ? No. What then ? The man for whom Christ 
died ! And so, if the brother cannot be won, he is to be 
treated by the Church as a man for whom the Church will 
die in order that he may be saved ! 

All this is the atmosphere of the Kingdom ; and the 
Church is seen as embodying the great facts of the King- 
dom. Moral authority ; — " What things soever ye shall 
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; and what things 
soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 
Spiritual power ; — " If two of you shall agree on earth as 
1 Matt, xviii. 15. 2 Ibid., xviii. 17 



270 The Teaching of Christ 

touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for 
them of My Father which is in heaven." All this be- 
cause of the presence of the King : " Where two or three 
are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst 
of them." 1 Christ and the child in the midst ; that is the 
Church ; and for to-day, that is the Kingdom. 

From these words of Jesus we travel back to an old 
prophecy. The prophet Zechariah climbed higher than 
most of his order, and gazing across the centuries and 
millenniums to the glorious hour when the Kingdom of 
God should be established, he described what he saw in the 
words : " The streets of the city shall be full of boys and 
girls playing in the streets thereof." 2 That is the ultimate 
Kingdom of God on earth. And now, said Jesus, you, My 
disciples, My ecclesia, My Church, having moral power 
and spiritual dynamic, you are that for to-day ; the child is 
in the midst, and I am in the midst. I have not abandoned 
My Kingdom ; I have come to realize it first within your 
borders ; and I have come to realize it within your borders 
in order that it may be interpreted to the world. 

Let us now glance at some of His subsequent references, 
in which He spoke to these men as to a corporate body, a 
Church, and yet constantly concerning a Kingdom. 

Ten men were indignant at the request of two. Two 
had asked that they might sit on His right hand and on His 
left, when He should come in His Kingdom. I am not 
interested in their indignation, or even in the request, only 
in order to emphasize the fact that it was for power as 
within His coming Kingdom. But how did the Lord an- 
swer ? By teaching them the law of greatness in the 
Church, by putting the Church into contrast with the king- 
doms of men. In that passage 3 we have a most graphic 
picture of all human kingdoms, even until this hour, as to 
1 Matt, xviii. 18-20. * Zech. viii. 5. 'Matt. xx. 24-28. 



The Redemptive Processes — The Church 271 

order of precedence. Your great ones exercise authority 
over you, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 
That is to say, there are gradations of authority. The mass 
of the people are ruled by rulers ; the rulers are ruled by 
higher rulers ; and greatness is calculated by the grade of 
authority. " Not so shall it be among you." He that 
would occupy the position of ultimate greatness among you 
is not the one who exercises authority, but yields to it ! 
The lowest grade, — borrowing the phrase from a world 
that has largely forgotten God, — the grade that serves, is 
greatest in the ultimate Kingdom of God. The supreme 
eagerness of souls in the ultimate Kingdom will not be to 
rule men, but to serve. Christ said that this rule of the 
Kingdom is to be the rule of the Church. It is to be 
realized in the Church, and so manifested to the world. 
One of the secrets why the Church of God has failed, and 
is failing still, is that in this respect she has never yet realized 
her Master's ideals. 

There had been a symbolic judgment of a fig-tree, on 
His way to Jerusalem for those last august acts by which 
He flung the Hebrew nation aside as an instrument of the 
Kingdom of God. 1 The disciples were astonished, and 
He said, speaking to them in their corporate capacity, that 
if they had faith, much mightier things than these should 
they do. He contrasted the power of faith with the failure 
of the people who had lost that power of faith, and who 
therefore were like the fig-tree, doomed to judgment. He 
put over against the failure of the Hebrew people, — with 
which He was then dealing from the standpoint of an offi- 
cial authority, — this power of faith, this power of prayer. 2 
It was all in the Kingdom atmosphere, but He was talking to 
His disciples, to the men who were to become the Church. 

At last the King did finally and definitely, and with great 
1 Matt. xxi. 43. *Ibid. t xxi. 21, 22. 



272 The Teaching of Christ 

clearness, pronounce the word of rejection against the He* 
brew people, " The Kingdom of God shall be taken away 
from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the 
fruits thereof." * In that word, full of solemnity, we are 
at the heart of the present line of thought, for it was the 
declaration of the transference of Kingdom responsibility, 
for the time being, from the Hebrew people to the new 
Ecclesia, to the new Theocracy, to the Church which He 
was about to build. 

Later still He gave instructions to His disciples as to their 
responsibilities, by revealing the failure of the scribes and 
Pharisees. He first recognized an official position which 
the scribes and Pharisees had occupied in the economy of 
God. " The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat : 
all things therefore whatsoever they bid you, these do and 
observe. ,, Then He spoke directly to His disciples : " Be 
not ye called Rabbi . . . call no man your father 
. . . neither be ye called masters." 2 Thus He revealed 
to them the order of the new Kingdom, and the secrets of 
the new authority. One is your Teacher, and He did not 
name the One. His reference was to the Holy Spirit, yet 
to come. One is your Father, and the declaration is self- 
evident, that He was referring to the Father Whom He 
had come to reveal. One is your Master, and He at once 
claimed that He Himself occupied that position. All this 
was teaching intended to show these men that they were 
to exercise moral authority ; not by claiming the titles 
which the Rabbis had claimed, but by being themselves 
taught of the great Teacher ; not by calling other men fa- 
ther, in some official way, and yielding themselves to a false 
authority, but by recognizing their relationship to the eternal 
authority, and their right of access to God for the discovery 
of His will ; not by being themselves looked upon as masters 
1 Matt. xxi. 43. *Ibui. t xxiii. 8-12. 



The Redemptive Processes — The Church 273 

of men, but by being yielded to the mastery of Christ. 
Thus they were to learn the secrets of morality, and exercise 
His authority in the world. 

The Olivet prophecy was uttered in answer to the in- 
quiry of His disciples, as to when certain things should take 
place that He had predicted. 1 It is a great prophecy, cover- 
ing three phases, and yet is permeated from first to last with 
the consciousness of the Kingdom and of the Church j deal- 
ing first with that period which culminated in the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem ; dealing secondly with the period from 
then until the hour of His second advent ; dealing finally 
with that august and wonderful day in which He will be 
the Judge of the nations, testing them by their relationship 
in that final movement to Israel, but through the long 
processes by their relationship to the nation that has been 
responsible for the Kingdom of God. Throughout the 
prophecy the Kingdom of God is the master thought j and 
the Church is seen as the instrument of that Kingdom in 
the economy of God. 

The Lord was present at the final Hebrew feast. His 
paschal teaching 2 is that of the fact of the transference of 
Passover. The festival celebrated the hour when the 
Kingdom was formed by redemption in the old economy. 
In a night much to be remembered, God broke the power 
of the oppressor, and led His people towards the sea, and 
through the sea, and said to them, I have brought you to 
Myself, a nation. He created the Hebrew people a King- 
dom by redemption. Passover celebrated it. 

Here let us use a word of Paul. " Our passover also 
hath been sacrificed, even Christ." 3 Let the light of that 
declaration fall upon what happened. He transferred Pass- 
over from that old economy, and from that ancient people 
who had failed to bring forth the fruits of the Kingdom, to 
1 Matt, xxiv., xxv. * Hid., xxvi. 3 I Cor. v. 7. 



274 The Teaching of Christ 

this new economy, and to these new people who were to 
be responsible for the fruits of the Kingdom ; and He in- 
stituted a feast in connection with the redemption by which 
the new Kingdom was to be founded. 

In that connection He referred to yet another transfer- 
ence, and another day, which has not yet come, as He said, 
"I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until 
that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's 
Kingdom." ■ That was a glance far ahead, to ultimate 
things, to that hour to which the apostle referred when he 
said, " Then cometh the end, when He (the Son) shall de- 
liver up the Kingdom to God." 2 The burden of all is 
that of the Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, its establish- 
ment, its realization, its victory. 

At last we come to Galilee, to the mountain where He 
appointed to meet them, to the only appearance after resur- 
rection which Matthew records, to the one appearance 
which is in harmony with all the process of his Gospel. 
Now He said : " All authority hath been given unto Me in 
heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and disciple the 
nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and 
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to ob- 
serve all things whatsoever I commanded you : and lo, I 
am with you alway, even unto the consummation of the 
age." 3 That is the voice of the King, it is the commission 
of the Kingdom ; it is the declaration that His Church is to 
go to the nations and deal with them as nations, by dealing 
with the individuals that make up the national life ; always 
remembering the value of the individual to the national 
life ; and forevermore having at heart a passion for the 
establishment of the Kingdom of God, and the bringing of 
all the nations within that Kingdom. The Kingdom re- 
sponsibility for proclamation and instruction was thus given 
1 Matt. xxvi. 29. 8 I Cor. xv. 24. 3 Matt, xxviii. 18-20. 



The Redemptive Processes — The Church 275 

to the Church in that final Kingdom commission of our 
Lord. 

From this rapid survey of the teaching of Jesus certain 
things are clearly evident. 

First, that the Church has, for the time being, superseded 
the Hebrew people in the economy of God in the matter 
of responsibility for the Kingdom of God on earth. Jesus 
said to the rulers, " The Kingdom of God shall be taken 
away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing 
forth the fruits thereof. ,, ' After resurrection His disciples 
said to Him, " Dost Thou at this time restore the Kingdom 
to Israel ? " 2 The bearing of that question is only dis- 
covered as we remember His denunciation of the Hebrew 
people. He had cast them out. That is why His disciples 
asked Him after resurrection : Has the time come to re- 
store the Kingdom to Israel ? He did not say that such 
a time will never come, but, " It is not for you to know 
times or seasons, which the Father hath set within His own 
authority. But ye shall receive power, when the Holy 
Ghost is come upon you : and ye shall be My witnesses 
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto 
the uttermost part of the earth." 3 

Finally we learn that the Church will fulfill her re- 
sponsibility for the manifestation of the Kingdom of God 
by the crowning of the King ; by yielding herself to His 
rule ; by realizing within her own borders His ideals ; by 
manifesting these things to the world without ; by waging 
unceasing war against all the forces in opposition ; by proc- 
lamation of His great evangel, whereby men individually 
may be brought into His Kingdom ; by testimony to His 
moral standards ; and by persistent, perpetual prayer in the 
secret Place. 

1 Matt. xxi. 43. » Acts i. 6. 8 Ibid., i. 7, 8. 



VI. THE REDEMPTIVE PROCESSES- 
THE CONFLICT 



" Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake ; 
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall re- 
proach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you 
falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding giad : for great is your 
reward in heaven : for so persecuted they the prophets which were before 
you." — Matthew v. 10-12. 

" Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves : be ye there- 
fore wise as serpents, and as harmless as doves. But beware of men : for 
they will deliver you up to councils, and in their synagogues they will 
scourge you ; yea and before governors and kings shall ye be brought for 
My sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they 
deliver you up, be not anxious how or what ye shall speak : for it shall be 
given you in that hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, 
but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you. And brother shall 
deliver up brother to death, and the father his child : and children shall 
rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall 
be hated of all men for My name's sake : but he that endureth to the end, 
the same shall be saved." — x. 16-22. 

" Think not that I came to send peace on the earth : I came not to send 
peace, but a sword ! For I came to set a man at variance against his fa- 
ther, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against 
her mother-in-law : and a man's foes shall be they of his own household. 
He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me ; and 
he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And 
he that doth not take his cross and follow after Me, is not worthy of Me. 
He that findeth his life shall lose it ; and he that loseth his life for My 
sake shall find it." — x. 34-39. 

" Another parable set He before them, saying, The Kingdom of heaven 
is likened unto a man that sowed good seed in his field : but while men 
slept, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went 
away. But when the blade sprang up, and brought forth fruit, then ap- 
peared the tares also. And the servants of the householder came and said 
unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field ? whence then 
hath it tares ? And he said unto them, An enemy hath done this. And 
the servants say unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up ? 
But he saith, Nay ; lest haply while ye gather up the tares, ye root up the 
wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest : and in the 
time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the tares, and 
bind them in bundles to burn them : but gather the wheat into my barn." 
— xiii. 24-30. 



" And He answered and said, He that soweth the good seed is the Son 
of Man ; and the field is the world ; and the good seed, these are the sons 
of the Kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one ; and the enemy 
that sowed them is the devil : and the harvest is the end of the world ; 
and the reapers are angels." — xiii. 37-39. 

"And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will 
build My Church ; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." — 
xvi. 18. 

r " Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man would come after Me, 
let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." — xvi. 24. 

"Therefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and 
scribes, some of them shall ye kill and crucify ; and some of them shall ye 
scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city : that upon 
you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood 
of Abel the righteous to the blood of Zachariah, son of Barachiah, whom 
ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar." — xxiii. 34, 3$. 
■ 

M • • • • • • • • • 

" If ye were of the world, the world would love its own : but because 
ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the 
world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, A servant 
is not greater than his lord. If they persecuted Me, they will also perse- 
cute you ; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these 
things will they do unto you for My name's sake, because they know not 
Him that sent Me." — John xv. ig-21. 

" These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye may have peace. 
In the world ye have tribulation j but be of good cheer ; I have overcome 
the world." — xvi. 33. 



VI 

THE REDEMPTIVE PROCESSES— 
THE CONFLICT 

The proclamation and propagation of the Kingdom of 
God in the midst of abounding anarchy must necessarily 
produce conflict. That needs no argument. It has been 
demonstrated in human history first by the experience of 
the Hebrew people ; and now for two millenniums by the 
experience of the Christian Church ; but centrally by the 
life of Christ, and by the fact of His Cross. Because the 
Church of God is to-day the instrument of that proclama- 
tion and propaganda, she must still share in that conflict. 

Our present theme is that of our Lord's teaching con- 
cerning that conflict, or rather concerning her part therein 
during the present age. There are other aspects of the 
conflict between anarchy and authority, between the forces 
of evil and those of righteousness, with which we are not 
now dealing; other aspects of the conflict in the future, 
with which we are not now concerned. We are now con- 
sidering the conflict of the Church in the interest of the 
Kingdom, as revealed in the teaching of our Lord. We 
shall consider first the fact of the conflict; and secondly 
the nature of the conflict. 

From the opening of His more formal propaganda in 
Galilee, which was followed almost immediately by the 
enunciation of His ethic in the presence of His own dis- 
ciples on the mount, throughout the whole of His ministry 
and in all His teaching, it is quite evident that our Lord rec- 
ognized this fact of conflict. It was clearly indicated in 
the closing beatitude of the great Manifesto when He spoke 

281 



282 The Teaching of Christ 

of the blessedness that rests on such'as are persecuted for 
His sake. It was plainly foretold in the first commission 
given to the twelve, which was largely local and limited, 
and which was ultimately superseded by the larger commis- 
sion beyond resurrection. He explained the fact in His 
special parabolic teaching concerning the Kingdom. He 
recognized it when at Caesarea Philippi He spoke for the 
first time of His Church, and of His Cross. He announced 
the fact of the continuity of that conflict to His enemies in 
the last solemn words that He spoke to them. Finally, in 
the secret and sacred sanctity of those hours in the upper 
room, when talking to His own disciples, and delivering to 
them His final comfort and charge, He distinctly foretold 
the inevitability of this conflict. 

Evidently, then, as our Lord looked through the age to its 
consummation, He saw His people engaged in ceaseless con- 
flict with the forces that were opposed to Himself, and are 
opposed to the Kingdom of God. Let us glance at these 
words of Jesus, in each case a little more particularly. 

The words selected from the Manifesto constituted the 
final double beatitude. Let us remind ourselves once more 
that they were spoken to His disciples, who for the moment 
were realizing the Kingdom by submission to the King. 
When in Galilee the multitudes gathered about Him, our 
Lord left the crowds in order to reach them more'perfectly ; 
He then gathered about Him His disciples ; and to His own 
subjects He uttered the great Manifesto. It is perfectly 
true that the crowds followed and listened ; but it is equally 
true, and never to be forgotten, that the Sermon on the 
Mount was spoken to His own disciples, and was intended 
for them, and for them alone, in the first place. He was 
speaking therefore to these men in whom the Kingdom ideal 
was realized, so far as it was possible at the. moment, by the 
fact that they had crowned God's appointed and anointed 



The Redemptive Processes — The Conflict 283 

King. In speaking to these men in whom the Kingdom 
ideal was realized in a measure, He was speaking to the 
Church that was to be. Our previous meditation en- 
deavoured to show how Kingdom responsibility is now vested 
within the Christian Church. In speaking to them, with a 
backward look, recognizing all that had been wrought in 
the ancient Hebrew economy by faithful souls, He said : 
" Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteous- 
ness' sake : for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." ' Then 
looking at the men who were close to Him, and referring to 
the new Kingdom movement which would issue from His 
own ministry and work, He said : " Blessed are ye when 
men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all man- 
ner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and 
be exceeding glad ; for great is your reward in heaven ; for 
so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." 2 
In these words our Lord recognized the fact of perpetual 
opposition to the Kingdom of God, and the consequent suf- 
fering of those who, loyal thereto, proclaim it to men. The 
prophets of the old, and the messengers of the new econo- 
mies, alike experience suffering resulting from the opposi- 
tion of evil to the Kingdom of God. 

When sending out His twelve disciples to the fulfillment 
of their first apostolic mission, He sent them to preach the 
Kingdom. He spoke to them of the immediate difficulties, 
and told them that they would suffer for His sake ; declared 
to them that presently the difficulties would become even 
greater ; that they would be sent out as sheep in the midst 
of wolves, describing with remarkable and detailed accuracy 
the actual experiences through which they passed between 
our Lord's ascension and the destruction of Jerusalem. 
Then looking on through the following centuries, He said, 
" Think not that I came to send peace on the earth : I 
IMatt. v. 10. » Matt. v. II, 12. 



284 The Teaching of Christ 

came not to send peace, but a sword ! " * So He recognized 
and emphasized, in the hearing of the men whom He was 
first sending forth with the great message of the Kingdom, 
the fact that the proclamation of the Kingdom must issue in 
strife, in conflict, and in suffering. 

The parabolic teaching of the thirteenth chapter of Mat- 
thew is full of the recognition of the fact. The element of 
conflict runs through all the parables, revealing not final 
things concerning the Kingdom, but processes leading 
towards the final things. As we read the parables we dis- 
cover all through two forces opposed to each other. In 
one of the parables this particular teaching is made clear ; 
the work of the enemy is that of the planting of darnel in 
the field of God ; the planting of that which is an almost 
exact imitation of wheat in its earliest stages, but which, in 
later development, proves to be its opposite. 

In the words spoken at Caesarea Philippi, declaring that 
He would build His Church, we find that His first word 
concerning the function of the Church recognized the con- 
flict that is to come. " The gates of Hades shall not pre- 
vail against it." 2 In that sentence the Church's warfare 
was revealed in a flash ; and the condition of fellowship 
with Him in that warfare was laid down in His subsequent 
words : " If any man would come after Me, let him deny 
himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." 3 

When speaking to His enemies, after the final woes had 
passed His lips, He said, " I send unto you prophets, and 
wise men, and scribes " ; 4 not, I have sent them to you, but 
I will send them to you, a declaration of His determination 
to persist in the proclamation of the Kingdom for their sake 
through a new ministry. I will send to you prophets, 
speakers for God, wise men who shall be winners of souls, 

1 Matt. x. 34. s Ibid., xvi. 24. 

3 Ibid., xvi. 18. 4 Ibid., xxiii. 34. 



The Redemptive Processes — The Conflict 285 

scribes who shall be interpreters of the law ; but you will 
scourge them, crucify them, fling them out. Thus here 
again He declared the fact of the persistence, both of the 
King and His enemies through the coming days ; the fact, 
therefore, of the continuity of the conflict. 

Finally in those last discourses in the upper room, He told 
His disciples that the conflict would be inevitable ; but 
ended everything with the word of courage, " Be of good 
cheer ; I have overcome the world." l 

This rapid survey of some of the outstanding words of 
Jesus concerning this conflict cannot fail to make some very 
definite impressions on the mind. 

The first is that of the unusualness of this conflict. 
This is marked in the fact that everything was entirely un- 
like warfare as we have known it in the history of the 
world. The methods of the soldiers of the Kingdom are 
not those of earthly strife. They seem to do nothing. 
They seem to offer no resistance. In no teaching of our 
Lord concerning these men is there any description of a 
campaign on their part which appears to be likely to match 
the campaign of those who are opposed to them. Indeed, 
we are impressed by the perpetual and persistent defeat of 
the King's army. They are always persecuted. They are 
always suffering. They are constantly crucified. They 
are as sheep in the midst of wolves ; and in that one master 
figure of speech the whole position is revealed. That is not 
warfare as men understand it, and yet that is the character- 
istic of the conflict as described in the teaching of our Lord. 

Over against that we must place another fact which is 
equally impressive, the abounding confidence and persistent 
hopefulness of His outlook. Never a tremor of doubt; 
no suggestion of ultimate failure ; the perpetual declaration 
of continuity of suffering and defeat ; and yet this, buoy- 

1 John xvi. 33. 



286 The Teaching of Christ 

antly, hopefully, confidently anticipated ! This optimism 
is not the optimism of One Who is hoping against hope, 
or Who is blind to the facts of the case. As we study the 
teaching of the Lord, we discover that, according to His 
conception of the conflict, the soldiers of the Kingdom who 
offer no resistance are by that fact offering resistance. 
The soldiers of the Kingdom, who are constantly being 
scourged and crucified and driven out, are by that fact walk- 
ing triumphantly after their overcoming Lord, Who Him- 
self did overcome by this process of defeat. As a matter 
of fact in these very methods that astonish us are the secret 
sources of strength, and they constitute the sure way to the 
ultimate victory. By defeat they are to win ; by dying 
they are to live ; by crucifixion they are to come to crown- 
ing ; by non-resistance they are to resist ; by taking no 
sword of the flesh in their hand they are to master all such 
as use the sword of the flesh. 

Now with these general impressions upon the mind, let 
us examine a little more closely the nature of this strange 
conflict as it is revealed to us in the teaching of our Lord ; 
no longer referring to particular passages, but endeavour- 
ing so far as we are able to deduce from the whole teaching 
a statement as to the nature of this conflict. 

We may summarize the whole story in the simplest way 
by declaring that in this conflict the weapons of the forces 
against the King are carnal ; while the weapons of the 
forces that fight for the King are spiritual. The root prin- 
ciple of anarchy is that of godlessness. That is a word so 
common in our speech, and so easily uttered that one al- 
most trembles lest its profound significance and its many- 
sided application may be lost sight of. All the forces that 
are against the King are against the King because they are 
godless, they put God out of account. Godlessness in His 
own day, as in our day, is not necessarily that of speech, 



The Redemptive Processes — The Conflict 287 

but godlessness in the actuality of the deepest inner life. 
It may be that the name of God is reverently spoken, while 
yet those naming it have no dealings with God, save that 
of antagonism to His claims. All the forces revealed to us in 
the New Testament, in the actuality of our Lord's conflict, or 
in the revelation of His teaching, are forces resulting from, 
and acting in response to the inspiration of godlessness. 

Let us go farther, and enquire, what is the consciousness 
of those who are acting in answer to the impulse of their 
actual godlessness ? The consciousness is ever that of 
love of self, of self-consideration ; and consequent hatred 
of all that opposes self-interest. There are many manifes- 
tations revealed in the New Testament, and many more 
in the course of the ages ; but underneath every one is the 
love of self, consideration of self, self-interest. What shall 
we eat ; what shall we drink ; wherewithal shall we be 
clothed ? Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. 
These are words of the simplest, perpetually quoted, yet 
they are flaming in revelation ; the emphasis is always upon 
the self-life, the* self-interest, the self-pleasure. Forgetful- 
ness of God, consideration of self; dethronement of God, 
enthronement of self; and wherever this is the master pas- 
sion of the life, then hatred of all that opposes follows ; 
hatred of God, hatred of the prophets who speak in His 
name, hatred of the letter which reveals His law ; hatred of 
all which, coming from Him, would set restraint upon hu- 
man life in order to realize it in all its beauty and in all its 
fullness within His great and gracious Kingdom. 

Such forces, inspired by godlessness, conscious of the de- 
sire for self-pleasing, and of hatred of all that hinders, fling 
themselves against the Kingdom of God, and against the 
messengers of the Kingdom of God ; and they do so by 
employing the weapons of the self-life, — lying, murder, 
and hypocrisy. Of course that is to strip a great many 



288 The Teaching of Christ 

things of false nomenclature, and to name them according 
to what they really are ; for in a day like this we look back 
to the early days of persecution, and then we look around 
and say, all the forces of opposition have retired. No, they 
have but changed their method of attack, they have accom- 
modated their opposition to the more subtle forms which 
have been made necessary in the age in which we live. 
Lying to-day is more refined in its methods, but it is none 
the less prevalent. Murder in the olden days, in the early 
experiences of the Church, was the actual killing of the 
saints ; but now men indulge in those subtler forms of 
murder, revealed in the ethic of Jesus, in which He de- 
clared that hatred in the heart towards another man is 
equivalent in the economy of God to the murder of the 
man. Hypocrisy persists though it has changed its masks. 
All the weapons of evil in this warfare are carnal ; lying, 
murder, and hypocrisy mass themselves, organize them- 
selves, against the Kingdom of God, to prevent its coming, 
to refuse its claims. 

Turning to observe the attitudes, the consciousness, and 
the weapons of the soldier of the King as they are revealed 
in the teaching of our Lord, one word will suffice to define 
that out of which everything else springs ; the root-principle 
is godliness, the return to God, the recognition of God, the 
remembrance of the fact of His rule, the submission to that 
rule, the yielding of all to Him. Out of that everything 
springs. There can be no fight on behalf of God on the 
part of men who are godless. No man has any power to 
bring in the Kingdom of God, who excludes the Kingship 
of God from his own life. It is quite possible for men to 
pray in multitudes, " Thy Kingdom come," but the prayer 
rises no higher than where the sound expires, unless the 
Kingdom has come in the life of the men who pray. A 
recognition of that fact affords an explanation of the per- 



The Redemptive Processes — The Conflict 289 

petual terms of sifting and searching severity of which our 
Lord made use, in the days of His personal propaganda. 
How the multitudes flocked after Him, and how He held 
them back: ! How easily they would have crowned Him 
upon the basis of the fact that He was able to provide them 
with bread ; and with what solemn resolutions of purpose 
He declined to be so crowned ! He declared that if men 
would come after Him, to His Kingdom, and the establish- 
ment of the Kingdom of God, they must begin by such sub- 
mission to Himself as should indicate their return to God, 
not theoretically but practically. Godliness, as opposed to 
godlessness ; that is the nakedness of the fight from begin- 
ning to end. 

And further, when we look at these soldiers of the King, 
and when we listen to the King, we discover that their 
consciousness is in direct opposition to that of the forces 
against the King. On the one hand love of self and hatred 
of all opposing. On the other, love of God, and infinite 
compassion for men. 

This at once shows how impossible it is for the soldiers 
of the King to fight with the weapons which are employed 
by their enemies. Consciousness of self and hatred of all 
that opposes will use carnal weapons ; but love of God, 
and compassion for the men that oppose Him, will decline 
to use such weapons. The weapons of the soldiers of the 
King are truth, salvation, and sincerity. Truth opposes 
itself to all lying ; a consuming passion to save enters into 
conflict with hatred ; and sincerity challenges hypocrisy. 

Now let us observe the forces as they come together in 
the actuality of conflict. As to the root principles, god- 
lessness confronts godliness ; it is armed with sword, and 
fire, and rack, subtle and devilish means of causing pains 
to others ; but godliness is armed with truth and love and 
sincerity, the instruments of saving others. Mark them in 



290 The Teaching of Christ 

conflict. Which will be victorious ? Let me quote in this 
connection a great word of the apostle Paul in writing to 
Timothy. Apart from its profoundest values, it throws 
light on this matter also. " Great is the mystery of godli- 
ness ; He was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, 
seen of angels, preached among the nations, believed on in 
the world, received up in glory." ' That is the story of the 
triumph of godliness. How did godliness reach that tri- 
umph ? By defeat ; by being bruised and wounded and 
murdered; by the appalling mystery of the fact that when 
He was reviled He reviled not again ; that He was led as a 
lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, 
so He opened not His mouth. By that non-resistance in 
the power of the carnal, He resisted in the power of the 
spiritual ; and came to a twofold triumph, past and ultimate. 

Or look at the actuality of the conflict as between the 
consciousness of the forces that oppose, and the conscious- 
ness of the soldiers of the King. On the one side, self- 
consideration, which hates all that opposes ; on the other, 
that self-emptying which loves even such as oppose. Which 
is to win ? In the heart of the classic passage in the writ- 
ings of Paul on love, there flames and flashes one statement 
with exquisite and never-fading beauty ; the ultimate word 
of all the argument is this, " Love never faileth." Yet how 
it seems to fail, but it never fails ! Love is bruised, and wins 
by its bruising. Love is left upon the highway, destitute, tor- 
mented, afflicted, and by that willingness to be left, triumphs 
over every force opposed to it, " Love never faileth." 2 

Next consider the opposition as between the weapons 
that are carnal and those that are spiritual. In his second 
letter to the Corinthian Christians Paul said, " We do not 
war according to the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare 
are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting 
1 1 Tim. iii. 16. » I Cor. xiii. 8. 



The Redemptive Processes — The Conflict 291 

down of strongholds) ; casting down imaginations, and 
every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of 
God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the 
obedience of Christ." ' These are the victorious weapons, 
those that deal, not with external manifestations, but with 
the inspirational centres of human life ; casting down im- 
aginations, dealing with the underlying reasons of things, 
and capturing these and turning them to good. Thus the 
ultimate victory of the Kingdom is to be won. 

The conflict is persistent, and the way is still the same. 
The Church of God has always failed when she has turned 
to other weapons, and to carnal methods. Christ's first 
words to His disciples, after He had spoken of the Church, 
were terrible and stern words, but necessary, " Get thee 
behind Me, Satan ; thou art a stumbling-block unto Me : 
for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of 
men." 2 Our Lord had spoken of His Church ; of build- 
ing it ; of its victory over all forces including death itself; 
of His disciples as holding the keys of the Kingdom ; and 
all the words were the words of a propaganda moving 
towards victory. Then He had told them that the way to 
the crown was the way of the Cross. And Peter, spokes- 
man of the Church through all time, save as she is indeed 
taught of the Spirit, said, " Be it far from Thee, Lord : this 
shall never be unto Thee." 3 In those words he protested 
against the idea that in order to the establishment of the 
Kingdom there must be no carnal fighting; that all the 
fighting must be the cessation of fighting ; that the dynamic 
of resistance is the end of resistance. That be far from 
Thee, said Peter. No Church will be built that way. The 
gates of Hades will never yield to such methods. The keys 
of the Kingdom cannot long be held by such ideas. And 
Jesus said, " Get Thee behind Me, Satan," thou art measur- 
1 2 Cor. x. 3-5. » Matt. xvi. 23. s Ibid., xvi. 22. 



292 The Teaching of Christ 

ing My campaign by the ways of men, hoping to establish 
My Kingdom by the way that other kingdoms have been 
established, all of which perish and fail. " Get thee behind 
Me, Satan." 

And at last, under the olive shades of Gethsemane, speak- 
ing to the selfsame man, our Lord said, " Put up again thy 
sword into its place : for all they that take the sword shall 
perish with the sword." * The history of the Church from 
that day until now demonstrates the truth of that word of 
Jesus. A little over three centuries ago, men in our own 
country took the sword and removed the king ; but the king 
came back. Men at the same time suffered the loss of all 
things, and struck no blow in defense ; but they won the 
victory of spiritual freedom which abides until this hour. 
The coming of the Kingdom of God will never be by the 
sword. Defeat is still our way of victory. The loss that 
a man suffers for the Kingdom of God is the gain of the 
Kingdom in the place of his suffering, and the assurance of 
the ultimate triumph. Not by any carnal weapons are we 
to fight this warfare, not by any means which men employ 
for the establishment and the strengthening of earthly king- 
doms, will this Kingdom be brought in and established. 
Lowell saw far indeed when he sang : 

" Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne, — 
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim 
unknown, 
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own. 

• •••••• 

Count me o'er earth's chosen heroes, — they were souls that stood 
alone, 
While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious stone, 
Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline 
To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine, 
By one man's plain truth to manhood and to God's supreme 
design. 

1 Matt. xxvi. 52. 



The Redemptive Processes — The Conflict 293 

" By the light of burning heretics Christ's bleeding feet I track, 
Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not 
back, 
And these mounts of anguish number how each generation learned 
One new word of that grand Credo which in prophet-hearts 
hath burned 
Since the first man stood, God-conquered with his face to heaven 
upturned. 

'•' For Humanity sweeps onward : where to-day the martyr stands, 
On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands ; 
Far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling fagots burn, 

While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return 
To glean up the scattered ashes into History's golden urn." l 

" I came not to send peace, but a sword." 2 
"The weapons of our warfare are not carnal." 3 
" In the world ye have tribulation : but be of good cheer ; 
I have overcome the world." 4 

1 The Present Crisis. 3 2 Cor. x. 4. 

* Matt. x. 34. * John xvi. 33. 



VII. THE CRISIS 



" Who do men say that the Son of Man is ? . . . Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God." — Matthew xvi. 13 f 16. 

" For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with 
His angels ; and then shall He render unto every man according to his 
deeds." — xvi. 27. 

" The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and 
to give His life a ransom for many." — xx. 28. 

" Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass 
away." — xxiv. 33. 



" Fear not, little flock ; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you 
the Kingdom. . . . Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps 
burning ; and be ye yourselves like unto men looking for their Lord." — 
Luke xii. 32, 35, 36. 

" For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." — 
xix. 10. 

" I appoint unto you a Kingdom, even as My Father appointed unto 
Me, that ye may eat and drink at My table in My Kingdom ; and ye shall 
sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." — xxii. 29, 30. 



VII 
THE CRISIS 

When dealing with some of the phases of the Kingdom 
as indicated in the references of Jesus, we noted as the final 
fact that the Kingdom is to be established on the earth by 
processes, culminating in a crisis. With the processes we 
have dealt ; the Cross as fundamental ; the Church as in- 
strumental ; and the conflict as experiential. 

Coming now to the crisis to which our Lord referred, we 
have immediately to recognize how large a place the subject 
occupied in the teaching of Jesus. He said far more con- 
cerning His advent than He did concerning either His Cross 
or His Church. 

We will, therefore, first survey the field ; secondly, ex- 
amine the first explicit declaration ; and finally, attempt to 
summarize the facts revealed. 

In surveying the teaching of Jesus on this subject, we shall 
confine ourselves to those words of the Lord in which He 
distinctly dealt with the second advent in its bearing on the 
Kingdom ; omitting all references to that advent which had 
other reasons and other applications. In referring to this sub- 
ject He had two methods, which we may describe as parabolic, 
and specific ; and we shall group His sayings in that way. 

The parables of the Kingdom may be divided into two 
groups, those delivered in set discourse, recorded in the 
thirteenth chapter of Matthew ; and those incidentally 
spoken upon other occasions, and almost exclusively to His 
disciples, even if in the hearing of the crowd. In the thir- 
teenth chapter of Matthew we have seven parables dealing 
directly with the Kingdom of heaven, those of the sower, the 

297 



298 The Teaching of Christ 

darnel, the mustard-seed, the leaven, the treasure, the pearl, 
and the drag-net ; and a final one setting forth the responsi- 
bility of those who have this teaching, that of the householder. 

In so far as these parables deal with the processes of the 
Kingdom, they reveal a conflict ; the continued opposition 
of two persistent activities, antagonistic to each other ; or 
else they reveal some selective activity which finds treasure 
in the earth and takes it out therefrom, but still leaves the 
Kingdom unestablished. 

Or, to put the matter into slightly different form, in these 
parables of the thirteenth chapter, we have teaching con- 
cerning the Kingdom, but nothing final ; no description of 
its ultimate conditions, no description of the prevailing 
glories ; only a description of certain processes through which 
the Kingdom passes, only pictures covering a certain period 
of time, and revealing the movement towards a Kingdom. 
That period is one of conflict, of antagonism, or, as I have 
already said, of the operation of two opposing activities. 

In two of these parables a definite crisis is referred to ; 
that of the darnel, and that of the drag-net. In each of 
them our Lord referred to " the consummation of the age," 
not the end of all the ages, but the consummation of one 
particular age, the age which He was then describing in His 
parables. He declared, moreover, in each of these two 
parables that the consummation of the age would be brought 
about by some definite interposition of His own. Neither 
in the parable of the darnel, nor that of the drag-net did He 
make any definite] reference to His personal advent, but He 
did declare that He would take hold of the reins of authority, 
and sending His angels into the midst of human affairs, 
would separate between the evil and the good, casting out of 
the Kingdom all the things of evil, and bringing to final 
fruition and glory the things of goodness which have resulted 
from the operation of His servants through the processes. 



The Crisis 299 

Thus^in these two parables, the truth is clearly revealed, 
that the final victory over evil is to be won by a definite 
crisis under His own guidance, His own authority, and His 
own administration. 

Glancing next at those which were incidentally spoken, 
we find three definitely dealing with the relation of His ad- 
vent to the Kingdom.J 

The first is that of the waiting servants, recorded by 
Luke. The crisis for which these servants were bidden to 
wait was that of the return of their lord and master. This 
parable is closely linked to that gracious word of Jesus, 
" Fear not, little flock : for it is your Father's good pleasure 
to give you the Kingdom. " ' Having said that, He told His 
disciples how they might come into possession^ that which it 
was their Father's good pleasure to give them. They were 
to sell what they had, and invest their wealth as members of 
His Kingdom in such a way as to bring the Kingdom. He 
finally illuminated that instruction by the parable beginning : 
" Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning ; 
and be ye yourselves like men looking for their lord." 2 

The next is the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, 
recorded by Matthew. 3 Notice the crisis of eventide, when 
the master comes, and the servants appear before him to 
receive the rewards of toil. 

The last is the parable of the marriage feast, also recorded 
by Matthew. 4 The particular value of this in our present 
study is that of the crisis created when the King Himself 
appears, and the man without the wedding garment is sent 
forth into the darkness outside the Kingdom. Thus in all 
the parabolic teaching a crisis was referred to ; and it is 
quite clear that, in the mind of the Lord, the crisis would be 
created by His own return. 

1 Luke xii. 32. 8 Matt. xx. 1-16. 

3 Ibid., xii. 35. 4 Ibid., xxii. 1-14. 



300 The Teaching of Christ 

All this, however, was not merely referred to in parabolic 
teaching ; it was definitely stated. At Caesarea Philippi He 
for the first time explicitly declared that He would come 
again. Each of the evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, 
place that declaration for the first time in that particular 
relation. After the confession of Peter, after the avowed 
purpose of building the Church, after the declared necessity 
for the way of the Cross, He said, " The Son of Man shall 
come in the glory of His Father with His angels ; and then 
shall He render unto every man according to his doing." ) 
Quite clearly, according to that declaration of our Lord, 
His own personal advent is to constitute the crisis by which 
the Kingdom will be established. 

In the Olivet prophecies 2 the same truth was clearly de- 
clared. The culmination of the conflict would be when He, 
the Son of Man, should come ; the responsibility of stewards 
during the period of His absence was always to be fulfilled 
in the light of His return ; and when, looking through the 
centuries, He foretold the hour of national reconstruction, 
He associated it with His own coming, declaring that He 
would return, and before Him the nations should be gathered 
together, and that under His supervision the great work 
should go forward. 

Finally, under the shadow of the Cross, in His last dis- 
course with His own disciples, He said unto them, " I ap- 
point unto you a Kingdom, even as My Father appointed 
unto Me " ; and to the twelve, His apostles, He said, " Ye 
shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." 3 

Now this is to sweep over the whole ground of His teach- 
ing, not to interpret it in detail, but to lay emphasis upon 
the fact that whether He was mistaken or not, if these 
records are to be trusted, He confidently affirmed, and per- 
sistently declared, that He Himself would actually and per- 
1 Matt. xvi. 27. 2 Ibid. t xxiv., xxv. 8 Luke xxii. 29, 30. 



The Crisis 301 

sonally return, and that by that return the crisis would arrive 
in which the processes of this period would find fulfillment, 
and the Kingdom of God would be established. 

But now, in order to a little more careful consideration, 
we concentrate upon what has been already described as the 
first explicit declaration : " For the Son of Man shall come 
in the glory of His Father with His angels ; and then shall 
He render unto every man according to his deeds." ' 

It requires a very great deal of the wisdom which is of 
this world to escape from the simple meaning of that declara- 
tion of Jesus. If, in order to hear these words, we can get 
away from this particular age, and stand among those dis- 
ciples at Caesarea Philippi, and listen with them, hearing 
the words as they heard them, from the standpoint of their 
consciousness, we shall be far nearer to their meaning than 
in any other way. 

Let us first observe the title which our Lord employed in 
this statement, u The Son of Man." What did that mean 
to the men who heard it ? The connection of the ancient 
writings is quite evident. In the Old Testament it rarely 
occurs, and, indeed, it may be said that it is only found 
specifically and definitely in one particular prophecy, that of 
Daniel, and it appears there, only to pass out of sight al- 
most immediately. 

" I saw in the night visions, and, behold, there came with 
the clouds of heaven one like unto a son of man, and he 
came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him 
near before him. And there was given him dominion, and 
glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and 
languages should serve him : his dominion is an everlasting 
dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that 
which shall not be destroyed." 2 

Daniel asked for an explanation of his vision, and in the 
1 Matt. xvi. 27. 2 Dan. vii. 13, 14. 



302 The Teaching of Christ 

course of that explanation, these are the words dealing with 
this particular part of it : 

" But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his 
dominion " — that is, the dominion of the false prince — " and 
the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven 
shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High : 
His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and all dominions 
shall serve and obey Him." 1 

Now if, at this distance of time, I should affirm that when 
Jesus made use of the title " Son of Man " for Himself, He 
did so intending to assume the title as it appeared in Daniel, 
it would be a supposition to which some objection might 
very properly be taken. But when we consider that this 
particular word in Daniel had produced the profoundest 
effect upon the Jewish theologians, and that the teachers of 
the time were constantly employing it in reference to Mes- 
siah ; then we shall see that it was impossible for any new 
teacher to employ it, without giving those who heard Him 
do so the impression that He was using it in that sense. 

Extracts from two Jewish writers will show the effect 
that had been produced upon them by the prophecy of 
Daniel. The book of Enoch was certainly pre-Christian ; 
— it is not quite easy to date it, but we cover all the ground 
of suggestion by declaring it was written somewhere in the 
century preceding the coming of Christ, somewhere be- 
tween 94 and 4 b. c. In that book are these words : 

" And there I saw One who had a Head of Days, and 
His head was white like wool, and with Him was another 
being whose countenance had the appearance . . . like one 
of the holy angels. And I asked the angel who went with 
me and showed me all the hidden things, concerning that 
Son of Man, who he was, and whence he was, and why he 
went with the Head of Days ? And he answered and said 

1 Dan. vii. 26, 27. 



The Crisis 303 

unto me, This is the Son of Man who hath righteousness, 
with whom dwelleth righteousness, and who reveals all the 
treasures of that which is hidden, because the Lord of 
Spirits hath chosen him, and his lot before the Lord of 
Spirits hath surpassed everything in uprightness forever. 
And this Son of Man whom thou hast seen will arouse the 
kings and the mighty ones from their couches, and the 
strong from their thrones, and will loosen the reins of the 
strong, and grind to powder the teeth of the sinners. And 
He will put down the kings from their thrones and kingdoms, 
because they do not extol and praise Him, nor thankfully ac- 
knowledge whence the kingdom was bestowed upon them." ' 

Or again, in the same book of Enoch : 

" And he sat on the throne of his glory and the sum of 
judgment was committed unto Him, the Son of Man, and he 
caused the sinners, and those who had led the world astray to 
pass away and be destroyed from off the face of the earth." 2 

These quotations illustrate the common thought of the 
time in which Jesus exercised His ministry. The title used 
by Daniel had taken hold of the hearts of the subsequent 
teachers, and everywhere there was expectation of some 
apocalypse, unveiling, out-shining, manifestation, connected 
with the coming of the Messiah who was referred to as the 
Son of Man. 

In the Apocrypha, in the second book of Esdras, a book 
written undoubtedly within the first century of the Chris- 
tian era, about 81 a. d., the same ideas are found. Esdras 
tells of a dream in which he saw coming 

" Up from the midst of the sea as it were the likeness of 
a man ; and I beheld, and lo, that man flew with the clouds 
of heaven ; and when he turned his countenance to look, all 
things trembled that were seen under him. . . . After 
this, I beheld, and lo, there was gathered together a multitude 
1 Enoch xlvi. 1-5. ' Enoch lxix. 27. 



304 The Teaching of Christ 

of men, out of number, from the four winds of heaven, to 
make war against the man that had come out of the sea." l 

When Esdras seeks the interpretation of the dream, he 
is told: 

" Whereas thou sawest a man coming up from the midst 
of the sea, the same is he whom the Most High hath kept 
a great season, which by his own self shall deliver his crea- 
tures : and he shall order them that are left behind. . . . 
Behold, the days come when the Most High will begin to 
deliver them that are upon the earth . . . and it shall 
be when these things shall come to pass, and the signs shall 
happen that I showed thee before, then shall my Son be 
revealed, whom thou sawest as a man ascending. . . . 
And this my Son shall rebuke the nations which are come 
for their wickedness. . . . And He shall destroy them 
without labour by the law, which is likened unto fire." 2 

All this is of importance in] that it shows that our Lord 
used the title Son of Man, knowing that the men who 
heard understood it as referring to the Messiah. In the 
subsequent interpretation of the Master's meaning we find 
a return to the very views that had characterized the most 
illuminated teachers in the days before the Lord came. 
Again, Christ used that title for Himself, not once or twice, 
but constantly ; indeed, it was His favourite title for Him- 
self. In declaring the purpose of His mission, He said, 
" The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which 
was lost." 3 When He described the method of His mis- 
sion He said, " The Son of Man came not to be ministered 
unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for 
many." A And now when referring to the completion of 
His work He said : "The Son of Man shall come in the 
glory of His Father." 5 

1 2 Esdras xiii. 2, 3, 5. 8 Luke xix. 10. 

*/£&., xiii. 25, 26, 29, 32, 37, 38. 4 Matt. xx. 28. 5 Ibid., xvi. 27. 



The Crisis 305 

Now examining His use of the title on this special occa- 
sion in the light of the whole story, everything began with 
His own question, u Who do men say that the Son of Man 
is ? " 1 And when the answer came from one illuminated 
soul, " Thou art the Messiah, the Son of the living God," a 
He accepted the confession, and proceeded to make a dec- 
laration concerning His Church, His Cross, and the fact 
that He was coming again ; and announced that by the way 
of His coming again, the Kingdom whose foundation must 
be laid in the mystery of His Cross, and whose processes 
must be carried forward by the conflict of His Church, 
should be established in the world. 

He declared that He Himself would come again, in the 
glory of His Father, and bringing with Him, for the ad- 
ministration of the affairs of His Kingdom on this earth, 
the angels of His presence. The avowed purpose of His 
coming is that of the actual, immediate, visible assumption 
of authority ; and consequent discrimination in the affairs 
of the world. In that coming again, there will be fulfilled 
the prophecy of His immediate forerunner, John the Bap- 
tist, " Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly 
cleanse His threshing-floor ; and He will gather His wheat 
into the garner, but the chaff He will burn up with un- 
quenchable fire." 3 That prophecy our Lord referred to in 
His own parabolic utterances, as He claimed that at the 
consummation of the age He would come for the fulfillment 
of that ministry, the purging of the floor, the gathering of 
the wheat into the garner, and the burning of chaff in un- 
quenchable fire. These were great figures of speech, all 
too narrowly interpreted oftentimes, for wheat in that figure 
of speech is infinitely more than individual men, and chaff* 
may not refer to men at all ; or it may, as men have given 
themselves over to the things of chaff. It is a picture of 
1 Matt. xvi. 13. * Ibid., xvi. 16. 3 Ibid., iii. 12. 



306 The Teaching of Christ 

the Lord Himself coming at the end of the age, and bring- 
ing with Him the angels in order to aid Him in His actual 
ministry in this world ; of His coming to destroy all things 
evil, and establish all things in themselves good j the win- 
nowing of the threshing floor of the world, so that the 
chafF is separated from the wheat, and gathered for burning, 
and the wheat harvested into the treasure-house of the 
King. It is a picture of a final activity of judgment, in 
which He will separate, not between man and man alone, 
but between affairs and affairs, things and things, methods 
and methods 5 destroying by His own immediate presence 
and government all the things that are unworthy, and con- 
serving and establishing all that accords with the will of God. 

In this teaching of Jesus there are many details omitted, 
many questions that we should like to ask are unanswered ; 
but enough is revealed to give us courage of heart. To 
summarize what seem therefore to be the chief matters in 
this teaching. 

First our Lord taught with great distinctness that the 
processes towards the Kingdom will culminate in a crisis ; 
that the crisis will be created by His own coming again ; 
that it will be as distinct, as definite as was His first com- 
ing, and no more wonderful and no more unbelievable ; that 
the activities of His personal coming will be those of judg- 
ment. Judgment means far more than punishment. Judg- 
ment is separation, restoration, administration, government. 
We talk of the day of judgment as if it were a day of four 
and twenty hours. The day of grace has lasted two mil- 
lenniums. How long may God's day of judgment last ? 
It is quite certain by Biblical prophecy it will last a thou- 
sand years, for all the millennium is the day of judgment; 
and there are hints and gleams in these prophetic writings 
of a period beyond the millennium. In the book of Reve- 
lation the story of the millennium is dismissed in a few 



The Crisis 307 

verses ; beyond the brief picture of the millennium it is de- 
clared that there will be the recrudescence of evil, for dur- 
ing the millennium it is but held in check, and never elimi- 
nated. But beyond, it is eradicated, and the glorious 
Kingdom of the Son is that in which the tabernacle of 
God shall be with men, and He shall dwell with them. All 
this must be brought to pass by His advent and His judg- 
ment of the world ; that is, His direct, immediate, positive 
government of it. He will not come merely to reign over 
a people who have been subjugated to His sway by the 
preaching of the Gospel and missionary effort. He will 
come to reign over all peoples, some of whom will be antag- 
onistic to Him at His advent; and therefore there will be 
a preliminary process necessary, the winnowing of the 
floor, the gathering out of things that offend, the casting of 
them out, in order to the establishment of the Kingdom. 
But the issue of His second coming will be the subjugation 
of all things to Himself. 

He teaches moreover that the responsibilities of His 
Church in this period are those of sharing His Cross, and 
maintaining His conflict ; and He carefully warned His 
disciples, in words that we need most solemnly to ponder, 
that the judgment is postponed until He come. Darnel 
and wheat must grow together until He separate them. 
The net must swing to the tides, and enclose all manner 
of fishes, until He separate them. So our business is not 
that of uprooting darnel, but of planting wheat. Our busi- 
ness is not to set up thrones of judgment before which we 
summon men ; but to carry on the conflict with which we 
dealt in our previous study, the conflict of the resistance of 
non-resistance : — the perpetual march of victory which is 
the constant march of defeat. It is the way of the Cross 
that leads to the crowning. 

These certainly are the teachings of Christ according to 



308 The Teaching of Christ 

the records. Those who are wiser than He must be left 
to their own problems, and to their own vain conceits. 
Only let those who are wiser than these words of Jesus 
consider lest, in zeal for some false conception of God, 
they may wrong themselves, and the Kingdom of God. 
An article appeared recently in the British Weekly, which 
is well worthy of very careful attention on the part of 
Christian people. 1 It has applications beyond this connec- 
tion, but the title of it immediately arrested my attention, — 
" Irreligious solicitude for God." The writer of the article 
shows that Hilary first used that phrase "irreligious solicitude 
for God," and that he used it in reference to those thinkers 
who shrank from accepting the full mystery of the Incarna- 
tion, because it seemed to be a kind of dishonour to God. 

In that very mood some truly fine souls object to the 
doctrine of the actual second advent of Christ. Such an 
objection is " irreligious solicitude for God." Let the ob- 
jection be answered in the words of Mr. Grist. He says, 

M A favourite expedient adopted by many is to assume 
that the apocalypse of Jesus is purely pictorial, and then 
proceed to ' spiritualize ' this teaching by excluding every 
statement that does not accord with the saying ' The 
Kingdom of God is within you.' . . . This prevalent 
mode of exegesis springs in part from a false delicacy or 
so-called spirituality, which resents every embodiment of 
ideas, and decries the material side of life in order to exalt 
the ideal. A world less gross than the one God has created 
would be needed to satisfy this superior order of minds." 2 

The man who objects to the Incarnation because it dis- 
honours God, objects to that through which he gained the 
conception of God that now makes him object to the idea 
of Incarnation. It was only through the Incarnation that 
the high and exalted ideals of God which men have to-day 
were made possible. If God did see fit to tabernacle in 

1 June 20th, 19 1 2. 2 " Historic Christ in the Faith of To-day," p. 427. 



The Crisis 309 

human flesh, then I worship, though I cannot understand 
it. The stoop is too infinite for .my comprehension, but I 
dare not question it. And I will not be guilty of such an 
irreligious solicitude for God as to refuse to believe the 
apocalyptic word of Jesus, for by other words He so re- 
vealed God to me that I am compelled to believe Him 
when He affirms that He will come again, in order to es- 
tablish the Kingdom. 

To those who believe the teachings of Christ, they bring 
rest and strength, amid all the conflict of to-day. We 
realize that all is now as He said it should be ; the devil is 
surely sowing darnel ; and so we are confident that all will 
be according to His word. It was in connection with these 
very prophecies that He said, u Heaven and earth shall pass 
away, but My words shall not pass away." ' Believing 
that to be true, we are content in the hour of conflict, in 
the bearing of the Cross ; for upon all the conflict there 
flashes the glory- of the advent, and we are able to sing with 
mighty old Luther, 

•« We wait beneath the furnace blast 
The pangs of transformation, 
Not painlessly doth God recast, 
And mould anew the Nation 
Where wrongs expire ; 
Nor spares the hand 
That from the land 
Uproots the ancient evil. 

" Then let the selfish lips be dumb, 
And hushed the breath of sighing, 
Before the joy of peace must come 
The pains of purifying. 
God give us grace 
Each in his place 
To bear his lot ; 
And, murmuring not, 
Endure, and wait the labour." 

1 Matt. xxiv. 35. 



VIII. AN INDIVIDUAL APPLICATION 



" And it came to pass, when He went into the house of one of the'rulers 
of the Pharisees on a Sabbath to eat bread, that they were watching Him. 
And behold, there was before Him a certain man which had the dropsy. 
And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it 
lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not ? But they held their peace. And 
He took him, and healed him, and let him go. And He said unto them, 
Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a well, and will not 
straightway draw him up on a Sabbath day ? And they could not answer 
again unto these things. 

" And He spake a parable unto those which were bidden, when He 
marked how they chose out the chief seats ; saying unto them, When thou 
art bidden of any man to a marriage feast, sit not down in the chief seat ; 
lest haply a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him, and he 
that bade thee and him shall come and say to thee, Give this man place ; 
and then thou shalt begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when 
thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest place ; that when he that 
hath bidden thee cometh, he may say to thee, Friend, go up higher : then 
shalt thou have glory in the presence of all that sit at meat with thee. 
For every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled ; and he that 
humbleth himself shall be exalted. 

" And He said to him also that had bidden him, When thou makest a 
dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kinsmen, 
nor rich neighbours ; lest haply they also bid thee again, and a recompense 
be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, bid the poor, the maimed, 
the lame, the blind : and thou shalt be blessed ; because they have not 
wherewith to recompense thee : for thou shalt be recompensed in the 
resurrection of the just. 

" And when one of them that sat at meat with Him heard these things, 
he said unto Him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of 
God. But He said unto him, A certain man made a great supper ; and 
he bade many : and he sent forth his servant at supper time to say to 
them that were bidden, Come ; for all things are now ready. And they 
all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I 
have bought a field, and I must needs go out and see it : I pray thee have 
me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I 
go to prove them : I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I 
have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. And the servant 
came, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house being 
angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the 
city, and bring in hither the poor and maimed and blind and lame. And 
the servant said, lord, what thou didst command is done, and yet there is 
room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and 



hedges, and constrain them to come in, that my house may be filled. For 
I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of 
my supper. 

" Now there went with Him great multitudes : and He turned, and 
said unto them, If any man cometh unto Me, and hateth not his own fa- 
ther, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, 
and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. Whosoever doth not 
bear his own cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple. For 
which of you, desiring to build a tower, doth not first sit down and count 
the cost, whether he have wherewith to complete it ? Lest haply, when 
he hath laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all that behold begin 
to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. 
Or what king, as he goeth to encounter another king in war, will not sit 
down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to 
meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand ? Or else, while 
the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an embassage, and asketh con- 
ditions of peace. So therefore whosoever he be of you that renounceth not 
all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple. Salt therefore is good : but if 
even the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned ? It is 
fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill : men cast it out. He that 
hath ears to hear, let him hear."— Luke xiv. 



VIII 
AN INDIVIDUAL APPLICATION 

These words constitute an almost startling individual 
application on the part of our Lord of His teaching con- 
cerning the Kingdom of God. In order that we may catch 
their true significance, we must recall the circumstances under 
which they were uttered, and very carefully observe their 
direct connection with the subject of the Kingdom of God. 

This fourteenth chapter in the Gospel of Luke is in 
some senses complete within itself. It is the story of a 
Sabbath day in the life of Jesus. It occurred in that period 
of His ministry when the Pharisees were strangely puzzled 
by Him, when their early interest in Him was changing to 
perplexity, and merging towards hostility. One of the 
rulers had asked Him to his house, and He had accepted 
the invitation. Jesus was a guest, and the Pharisee was 
the host. The Pharisees were narrowly watching Him, 
and He knew it. Among those present was a man sick of 
dropsy. Deliberately, and of set purpose, the Lord healed 
the man, and then defended His action as against their un- 
spoken, but self-evident criticism. 

Then occurred a strange action on the part of our Lord. 
As He had already violated all Pharisaic tradition by what 
He had done, so now He seems to have violated all the com- 
mon courtesies of hospitality. He was a guest, and as a 
guest He began to rebuke His fellow guests for the rudeness 
of the way in which they had assembled. He then turned 
to the host and rebuked him for the method which he had 
followed in issuing his invitations. 

Imagine a modern preacher acting thus, and we realize 

3i5 



31 6 The Teaching of Christ 

how startling an action this was. He criticized the guests 
and He criticized the host. 

Doubtless all were astonished at the strange things He 
had been saying ; but one man exclaimed : " Blessed is he 
that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God " ; l and Jesus 
replied to this man, to whom there had come a sudden mo- 
ment of clear illumination, " A certain man made a great 
supper, and he bade many . . . and they all with one 
consent began to make excuse." 

So much for the incidents. Now we must connect this 
exclamation with the Kingdom teaching of our Lord. 
Whence it sprang is clearly seen in the text, " When one 
of them that sat at meat with Him heard these things he 
said unto Him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the 
Kingdom of God." * The exclamation was caused by the 
teaching of Jesus in which He had rebuked, first the guests 
and then the host. In that teaching certain ideals of social 
life in the Kingdom were revealed. To the guests the Lord 
said such things as revealed the necessity for a true humility. 
He charged them that when they came to feasts they should 
not seek the best room, or sit in the highest place. And 
why not ? At this point is the heart of the teaching. Notice 
the actual words of Jesus, " Lest haply a more honourable 
man than thou be bidden of him." 2 A guest at a social 
function should refrain from seeking the chief place, in order 
that the best man may have it. Then He proceeded to de- 
clare that the attitude of mind that earnestly desires that the 
best man should have the best place is demonstration of 
fitness for the highest place of all. 

Turning to the host our Lord said to him that when he 

made a feast he ought not to call his friends, his kinsmen, 

his neighbours ; but the poor, the maimed, the blind, the 

halt. But mark the reason for it : " Lest haply they bid 

1 Luke xiv. 15. J Ibid., xiv. 8. 



An Individual Application 317 

thee again, and a recompense be made thee." 1 This is the 
law of hospitality in the kingdom of God, not to ask a rich 
neighbour, lest he should ask us again. Christ said : If 
you ask a man who can ask you again, his return invitation 
negatives the true value of your hospitality. There is an 
appalling amount of commercialism in social life ! 

Then with that inimitable skill and matchless wisdom 
that characterized Him, He illuminated the whole situation 
from the infinite spaces : " Bid the poor, the maimed, the 
lame, the blind . . . thou shalt be recompensed in the 
resurrection of the just." 2 

Thus He flashed upon the dust of to-day the glory of the 
coming resurrection, and revealed the fact that all things in 
this life are to be measured ultimately by the things that lie 
beyond. Humility in guests is the qualification for the fill- 
ing of the highest positions at the feast. Hospitality in a 
host is that which loves to provide, and loves to give, be- 
cause there can be no recompense. One man sitting at the 
feast listened to Him, and the glory of the ideal so appealed 
to him that he exclaimed, " Blessed is he that shall eat bread 
in the Kingdom of God ! " 

These were but illustrations in the realm of social life, 
yet how searching they were ; and they were chosen with 
consummate wisdom, for in social relationships men, society, 
and nations stand most clearly revealed as to character. 
Show me a people as hosts and guests, and I will tell you 
more about the national character than can be discovered in 
religious observance, political propaganda, or commercial 
enterprise. In religious observance men may wear dis- 
guises; in political propaganda they may be seeking votes; 
in commercial enterprise they are safeguarded by a policeman. 
But in social life they are themselves, and are manifest. If 
you really want to know what England is as a nation, and 
1 Luke xiv. 12. » Ibid., xiv. 13, 14. 



318 The Teaching of Christ 

how near it comes to the Kingdom of God, waste no time 
examining its religious life, or enquiring into its political 
institutions, or even its commercial enterprises j watch its 
social relationships, and see how much it knows of the hu- 
mility that Jesus Christ inculcated; or how much it practices 
of hospitality according to His ideals. Consider what the 
character of the people must be when such ideals of humility 
and hospitality in social life are realized. What manners 
are these when a man, coming to a feast, halts, because he 
passionately desires that the best man shall have the best 
place ! What men, and what manners are these, when the 
host has only one eagerness, that of finding an opportunity 
to give, never to receive again ! 

Our mental attitude towards these ideals pronounces them 
to be counsels of perfection. They are impossible ! Then 
Christ is impossible, and God is impossible and the King- 
dom is impossible ! Let us say so, if we think so. By this 
means we come to the most searching, sifting tests that our 
Lord instituted. If at the close of our studies on the teach- 
ing of Christ concerning the Kingdom of God, we discussed 
international arbitration, everybody would approve ; but these 
are our Lord's tests, the way we behave at a feast, the princi- 
ple upon which we invite our guests, our manner of life in 
the social circle. 

One guest, knowing that the only Kingdom in which 
such men and manners are possible is the Kingdom of God, 
cried out, " Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the King- 
dom of God." The Master, accepting his figure of speech, 
that of eating bread in the Kingdom of God, uttered the para- 
ble of the great supper, which moved in the same realm of 
social ideas. He carried over the same persons He had 
already been dealing with, guests and a host, and thus di- 
rected the already captured imagination to highest applica- 
tions. The host is now the King of the Kingdom, the 



An Individual Application 319 

supper is the bread of the Kingdom, and the guests are 
those to whom the Kingdom is offered. Of these our 
Master said, " They all with one consent began to make 
excuse." The parable is evidently the Lord's reply to a 
man who admired the Kingdom. 

Let us examine the statement as a whole ; then glance at 
the particular illustrations of which our Lord made use ; and 
then pause for one brief look at the teaching that followed. 

The teaching of the parable focussed in the text is that it 
is possible to admire an ideal, and refuse to realize it ; that it 
is possible to vote for the Kingdom of God, and fight against 
it. The man who exclaimed, " Blessed is he that shall eat 
bread in the Kingdom of God," was sincere and honest in his 
admiration. And in effect, the Lord replied : Very well, the 
Kingdom is open ; the invitations are issued ; but you will not 
come in ! "They all with one consent began to make excuse." 

This is a day of wide-spread admiration for the Kingdom 
of God, as revealed to us in its ideals and in privileges. 
These were expressed in the apostolic word : " The King- 
dom of God is righteousness and peace and joy 
in the Holy Ghost." These things are popular within the 
Church, and outside the Church. Righteousness is well 
spoken of to-day. Men everywhere are professing to love 
peace. Joy is the quest of the hour. Yet there is an 
equally wide-spread refusal to enter into the Kingdom which 
is righteousness and peace and joy ; persistence in wrong, in 
spite of admiration of right ; perpetuation of strife, in spite 
of the adoration of peace ; profanation of joy, by which it is 
killed. We agree that, " Blessed is he that shall eat bread 
in the Kingdom of God," but we are not proposing to enter 
it immediately. There is distinct approbation of the King- 
dom as an ideal, accompanied by definite refusal to submit 
to the King. Men pray, " Thy Kingdom come," and say 
in their hearts, " We will not have this Man to reign over 



320 The Teaching of Christ 

us." They say " Lord, Lord," and do not the things that 
the Lord commands. Some people seem to be profoundly 
gratified when one of the crowd in Hyde Park calls for cheers 
for Jesus Christ. Yet such cheers constitute a profanation 
and a blasphemy until men have crowned Him under the 
shadow of His Cross, and submitted their lives to His awful 
and insistent claim upon everything that they have. Thou- 
sands of people to-day are saying, " Blessed is he that shall 
eat bread in the Kingdom of God," and the Master still de- 
clares that the supper is spread, the Kingdom is open, but 
they all with one consent begin to make excuse. 

The excuses given aid the apprehension here, for they are 
full and final in that they not only reveal the facts, but inter- 
pret the secrets. The first said, * I have bought a field, and 
I must needs go out and see it : I pray thee have me 
excused." And another said, u I have bought five yoke of 
oxen, and I go to prove them : I pray thee have me ex- 
cused." And another said, " I have married a wife, and 
therefore I cannot come." ' 

Now the common word, describing all these people said, is 
the word " excuse." " They all with one consent began to 
make excuse." The first man said, " I pray thee have me 
excused " ; the second man said " I pray thee have me ex- 
cused " ; the last man did not use the word, but definitely de- 
clined as he said, " I cannot come," and so he made excuse. 

The word itself is suggestive. The Greek means to beg 
off". They all with one consent began to beg off"; as our 
own word, coming from the Latin, is a singularly apt and 
accurate interpretation of the idea. An excuse is that from 
which all reason is absent. An excuse is really a deceit, a 
subterfuge, the practice of hypocrisy, in order to escape, be- 
cause there is no reason to give. When a boy at school I 
went one morning with my homework unprepared. My 

1 Luke xiv. 18-20. 



An Individual Application 321 

mother did what mothers have a habit of doing ; she wrote a 
note for me to take to my master. I remember it well. It 
ran, u Will you please excuse Campbell's work this morn- 
ing ? " I gave it to him, and he received it most graciously. 
When twelve o'clock came, and I was preparing to go home, 
I heard a voice saying, " Morgan, where are you going ? " 
" Home, sir," I replied. " But your homework is not 
done ! " " No, sir, but I brought a note." " Oh, yes," he 
said, " that was an excuse, not a reason. You will please 
remain and do your work ! " I have never forgotten the 
difference between an excuse and a reason from that moment 
to this. He was quite right. Why was the note written ? 
Because I had no reason to give ; I wanted to dodge my work. 

" They all with one consent began to make excuse." 
We must interpret the parable by the exclamation, " Blessed 
is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God." This 
man knew perfectly well that in that parable of the great 
supper the great Teacher was speaking of the Kingdom of 
God. Though the invitation of God had gone forth, 
though the table was spread at which men might sit and 
eat, though the Kingdom had been brought close to them 
and they might enter in, they were making excuses for re- 
maining outside because they had no reason to give. 

One man said he had bought land, and must go and see 
it. That was the pride of possession. Another said he had 
bought oxen and must go and prove them. That was at- 
tention to business. Yet another said he had married a wife. 
That was the claim of another affection. All the ground of 
excuse is covered in these illustrations of Jesus ; pride of 
possession, the claims of business, the mastery of affections 
other than those for Himself. Excuses all ! Pride of pos- 
session ; if the land be possessed, then enter the Kingdom 
and learn the secrets of how to develop it. Attention to 
business j if the oxen be bought, then bring them with thee, 



322 The Teaching of Christ 

let not a hoof be left behind ! By the way, it may be 
added that the true method of a business man is to prove 
oxen before they are bought. Earthly affection ; that is not 
to be crucified but sanctified ; therefore with the new love 
enter the Kingdom ; and if not, then, If any man love wife 
more than Me, he is not worthy of Me, said the great King. 

None of these things was in itself wrong. It was not 
wrong to possess land, to buy oxen, or to marry. And 
therefore the parable teaches the sinfulness of legitimate 
things when they interfere with the highest ; when there- 
fore they prevent the realization of the highest ; and when 
ultimately through the prevention of the realization of the 
highest, they react upon and destroy themselves. We need 
to beware of the sinfulness of legitimate things. This teach- 
ing is focussed in an actual word of Jesus, uttered in His 
Manifesto : " Seek ye first His Kingdom, and His righteous- 
ness j and all these things shall be added unto you." The 
man who fails to obey loses not only the Kingdom, but all 
the things to which he clings in order to free himself from 
Kingdom obligations. 

Then we glance on down the parable for the final teach- 
ing of the Lord. " The master of the house being angry." 
That is a word of great solemnity, leading up to the dec- 
laration : " None of those men which were bidden shall 
taste of my supper." ' That is figurative language, and 
the revealed fact is that men who admire the Kingdom of 
God, but who will not enter, shall never eat its bread. Ad- 
miration of the Kingdom of God becomes in time blasphemy 
and impertinence, unless it lead men to submission to the 
Kingdom of God. 

Then we observe the hospitality of the master of the 
house ; the hospitality that followed upon his anger. He 
brought in the poor, the maimed and the blind and the lame, 

1 Luke xiv. 21-24. 



An Individual Application 323 

the very people he had told the host he should evei invite ; the 
poor, entering the Kingdom, come to wealth, the maimed to 
wholeness ; the blind to sight, the lame to power to walk. 
The hospitality of the great heart of the King expressed itself 
finally in that word full of exquisite beauty," Go out into 
the highways and hedges, and constrain them to come in." 

Then Jesus passed out of the house ; He crossed the 
threshold, and the multitudes who had been waiting, and 
doubtless listening, thronged after Him, and He began to 
say to them the severest things that ever passed His lips, 
" If any man cometh unto Me, and hateth not his own fa- 
ther and mother, and wife and children, and brethren, and 
sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 
Whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after Me, 
cannot be My disciple. . . . Whosoever he be of you that 
renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple." * 

Our Lord thus said to the people who followed Him, 
and thronged after Him, Let those who admire, and would 
share the blessedness of the Kingdom, know that they must 
crown the King, absolutely, and without counting cost or 
considering conditions. All other ties must be secondary, 
and severed if they interfere. The way of the Cross must 
be taken if a man would come into the Kingdom. There 
must be the renouncing of all possession, property must be 
held in trust for the Kingdom. 

Strange words, severe words; and we ask why? And 
this is the one occasion on which with greatest clearness 
He gave the reason for the severity of His terms. " Which 
of you, desiring to build a tower, doth not sit down first 
and count the cost ? " 2 By which He did not mean that 
they were builders and must count the cost, but that they 
were the King's helpers, that He was the Builder, and that 
He must count the cost ; that He was the King going to 
1 Luke xiv. 26, 27, 33. 2 Ibid., xiv. 28. 



324 The Teaching of Christ 

war, and therefore He must count the cost. He needed 
men in His building upon whom He could depend. He 
needed warriors who would fight in the day of fiercest con- 
flict. He had to sift the ranks, because the Kingdom, ere 
it could be established, would demand strenuous toil, con- 
stant conflict. So He sifted the ranks. 

Now the last saying ! Those who admire and refuse to 
help are salt without savour, are fit only for the dunghill. 
No, not even fit for that ! Cast them out ! That was 
Christ's searching, withering, appalling contempt for men 
who admire and do not obey. Those poor, bruised, 
maimed, blind, wretched people, who do not see the beauty, 
bring them in ; I will open their eyes, and heal them j 
But that smug, self-satisfied man, who listens to the preach- 
ing of the Kingdom and says, That is most excellent ; and 
bars his heart against Christ, and puts no blood into the 
business of building the Kingdom, and knows nothing of 
the Master's compassion ; that man, says Jesus, cast him 
out. Of all worthless men, that sleek, admiring Pharisee, 
who does nothing, is the most useless ! Cast him out ! 

What is our attitude towards the Kingdom of God ? 
Intellectual approbation, emotional attraction, and voli- 
tional antagonism ? Then we are not in the Kingdom ; 
we cannot eat its bread, we cannot help its King ; and at 
last even that King, so fair, so lovely, so patient, so infinite 
in pity, even He will cast us out. 

The only true attitude towards the Kingdom of God is 
that in which the whole life is surrendered. The only true 
attitude is that in which the life of the individual becomes a 
microcosm of the Kingdom that is to be, because it is un- 
der the reign and the rule of the King. 

If that is not so in your case and mine, why not ? 
Down the millenniums the penetrative voice of Jesus finds 
its way ; excuses, excuses ! God help us to have done 
with excuses, and to enter the Kingdom. 



Index 



Exodus — 

iii. 5 190 

6 120 

14 190 

xix. 6 206 

2 Samuel — 

vii. 12, 13 206 

1 Chronicles — 

xxix. 11 206 

2 Chronicles — 

xiii. 8 206 

Psalms — 

xxii. 28 206 

xlv. 6 206 

ciii. 19 206 

cxlv. II-13 206 

Isaiah — 

ix. 7 206 

xlv. 7 129 

liv. 13 124 

lxii. 3 206 

Jeremiah — 

xxxi. 34 124 

Ezekiel — 

xxxiv. 2 237 

Daniel — 

vii. 13, 14 301 

26, 27 302 

Micah — 

iv. 8 206 

Obadiah — 

21 206 

Zechariah — 

viii. 5 270 

3 



Apocrypha. 

2 ESDRAS — 

xiii. 2-5 303 f 

*5"39 3°4 

Matthew — 

»i- 2, 11 233 

12 305 

iv. 3» 6 »9 "5 

*4. 7» 10 • .98, 115. 234 
10 98 

* 17 175, 201 

v. 3 221, 235 

10 221 

10-12 283 

* 17-20 . . 158, 193, 220 
19 . 222 

* 48 193 

* vi. 1 194 

8 26 

9, 10 208 

10 223 

13 102 

22-24 n8 

32 26 

vii. 11 122 

24-27 6 

viii. 17 137 

ix. 4-6 137 

13 .... 40, 158, 160 

36 238 

x. 7 202, 220 

16-22 283 

20 56, 59 

25 IOI 

28 119 

34 ... . 158, 161, 293 

34-39 284 

40 156 

xi. 3-5 204 

12 204, 219 

25-28 242 



25 



326 



Index 



Matthew (continued} — 

* xi. 27 18, 25, 35 

xii. 26 98 

27 53. io2 

2 8 . . . 53» 59, 2 °4, 221 
3i,32 55» 59 

43-45 io 7 

xiii. 1-5 298 

19 102 

24-30 298 

37 102 

37-39 299 

38 102 

39 101 

39-41 81 

41 227 

43 215 

49, 5° 8l 

5 1 , 5 2 223 

xv. 11 123 

H 239 

17-20 123 

xvi. 13 305 

16 249, 305 

16-19 266 f 

* 18 . . . . 233, 264, 284 

* 19 ... . 223, 249, 264 

21 251 

22, 23 291 

24 . 284 

26 119 

27 89, 300 f 

28 250, 255 

xvn. 3-5 255 f 

xviii. 1 268 

3 I2 3» 220 

3, 4; 257 

10 86 

15, 20 269 f 

23-35 .... 257,268 

xx. 1-16 299 

17-28 257 

24-28 270 

28 166, 304 

xxi. 21, 22 271 

38 236 

43 ... . 224, 272, 275 

xxii. 1-14 . 300 

* 30 82 

* 32 120 

37, 39 27 

37-40 121 

xxiii. 4 237 



Matthew (continued) — 

xxiii. 8-12 272 

13 ....... . 224 

34,35 284 

xxiv., xxv 273, 300 

xxiv. 35 6, 309 

36 83 

xxv. 41 101, 108 

xxvi. 27-28 138 

29 274 

38 : . 35 

45 35 

52 292 

53 88 

xxviii. 18-20 274 

19 5 6 

Mark — 

i. 15 175, 202 

iii- 29 55, 136 

iv. 15 98 

viii. 38 . . , 6, 84 

ix. 47 220 

x. 14 . 205 

45 40 

xii. 29-31 121 

36,37 54 

xiii. II 56 

31 6 

32. ...... . 35 

xiv. 25 203 

xvi. 16 56 

Luke — 

ii. 49 42 

iii. 13 146 

iv. 4, 8, 12 39 

43 35 

vi. 9 148 

47-49 7 

vii. 50 150 

viii. 12 101 

48 142, 148 

50 148 

ix. 26 7, 84 

35 !4 

58 35 

59, 60 241 

x. 9 202 

9-1 1 221 

16 156 

* 18 99 

xi. 13 53 



Index 



3 2 7 



Luke (continued) — 

3C1. 21 24O 

24-26 24O 

xii. 4 119 

10-12 55 f 

15 I2 ° 

32 222 f, 299 

35 2 99 

* 49, 50 . . . 42, 54, 166 
xiii. 16 99 

xiv. 8 316 

12-14 3*7 

* 15 316 

18-20 320 

21-24 3 22 

26-33 323 

xv. 10 87 

xvi. 16 219 

22 87 

xvii. 19 148 

20 215 

* 21 221 

xviii. 31-34 145 

42 148 

xix. 3, 5, 7 145 f 

9, 10. . . 142 f, 147, 150 
10 .... 40, 158, 304 

11-27 238 

14 238 

xx. 35, 36 83 

xxi. 33 7 

xxii. 29, 30 300 

3 1 99 

xxiv. 44-48 7 

4M7 138 

49 5 6 

John — 

»• I 5 

'4 "3 

17 189 

18 113 

47. 5 1 81,85 

"• 4 195 

23, 2 4 5° 

iii. 1 50 

2-5 201, 217 

3 216, 239 

3-5 I2 3> 2I 9 

5-8 51, 57, 63 

13. '4 40 

Iv. 14 5 2 

22 142 



John {continued) — 

iv. 24 25 

*v. 17 . . . 26, 36 f, 42, 162 f 

18 38 

*2I 36 f 

24 7 

30-36 32 

34 158 

43 164 

vi. 28, 29 175 

* 35 190 f 

44,45 I2 3 f 

63 8 

70 101 

vii. 17 ». *75 

32 3 

37-39 5 2f 

45-46 3 

* viii. 12 190 f 

20 195 

34 136 

39 147 

*42 33 

44 101, 240 

5i 8 

*58 33 f 

ix. 4 35 

40,41 2 39 

41 135 

*x. 9 190/ 

10 166' 

* 11-15 I 9°f 

17 2 7 

17, 18 ... . 167, 252 

*3°»3*>33 .... 36 f 

*xi. 25 190 f 

xii. 21-32 257 

* 27, 28 166 

3 1 IQ 4 

* 34 38, 155 

46 42 

*47-5° 8, 11 

xiii. 36 62 

* xiv. 5 62 

6 190 f 

8 62 

8,9 28, 36 f 

* 16-20 65, 68 

26, 27 62 

30 104 

xv. i 190 f 

* 22-24 135 

* 26, 27 63 



328 



Index 



John {continued) — 

xvi. 7-16 63 

* 8, 9 136 

* 1 1 104 

12, 13 264 

* 28 28, 33 f 

33 285, 2 93 

xvii. I 196 

3 '7 

6-8 187 f 

8 ....... 8, 187 

17 186, 189 

20 195 

xviii. 36 217 

36,37 ... • I73» 2 58 

XX. 22, 23 56 

28 I8l 



Acts — 

i- 5-8 56 

6-8 275 

"• 12, 33 72 

23 165 

xxiii. 8 89 



Romans — 
xiii. 11 , 



I5> 



1 Corinthians — 

.v. 7 273 

xiii. 8 290 

xv. 24 274 

2 Corinthians — 

x. 3-5 291, 2 93 



Ephesians- 

*• 3 • 
ii. 19 . 
vi. 12 . 



21 

222 

108 



1 Timothy — 

iii. 16 43, 290 



Hebrews — 
i. 1, 2 . 

7 • • 

14. • 

ii. 16-17 

1 Peter — 
i. 3 • • 



1 John — 
i. 2 
ii. 1 



14 
88 

85 
83 



21 



"3 

65 



WRITERS QUOTED 



Enoch — 

The Book of 303 

GlRDLESTONE, R. B. — 

" Old Testament Syno- 
nyms" 128 

Grist — 

" Historic Christ in the 
Faith of To-day "... 308 

James, W. — 

" The Will to Believe " . 180 

Jones, J. D. — 

" Chairman's Address," 
Congregational Union 31 



Orr, J. — 
" Sin as a Problem of To- 
day" 127 

ROTHERHAM, J. B. — 

" Emphasized Bible " . . 43 

Trench, R. C— 

" Synonyms of the New 
Testament " 129 

Westcott, B. F 

" The Revelation of the 
Father" 33 



Index 



3 2 9 



SUBJECT INDEX 



Advent— 

The Crisis of the Second . 306 

Anarchy — 

to Christ. The Appeal of 241 

necessitating the Cross . 250 

False ideals of 232 

Manifestations of ... . 232 f 

postponing the Kingdom . 242 

The reasons of 239 f 

False rule of 236 

Angels — 

Belief of N. T. writers in 80 

Character of 84 

Future ministry of . . . 89 

Present ministry of . . . 84 f 

Nature of 81 f 

Aspects — 

of sin. Different. . . . 129 f 



Authority — 

Christ's words divine in 



11 



Beelzebub 101 f 

Being— 

of the Spirit. The ... 59 

Unity of Man's 117 f 

Values of man's physical 
and spiritual 119 

Belief— 

of N. T. writers in angels 80 
of N. T. writers in demons 106 f 

Bondage — 
in Sin 136 



The 



Call- 
to repentance, 
to faith. The , . 
to obedience. The 

Character — 

of angels. The . 
Sanctity of ... . 



Christ- 
Appeal of anarchy to 



176 f 

178 f 
180 f 



84 f 

188 f 



241 



Christ {continued) — 

Authority of teaching of . II 

His claim for His teaching 4 f 

Coming of 300 f 

Necessity for the cross of . 250 f 

The eternal 33 

His claim concerning the 

Kingdom 221 

His conception of the 

Kingdom 199 f 

identified with man . . . 113 
the manifestation of the 

name of God 188 f 

Method of 41 f 

in salvation. Method of . 156 

Mission of 39 f 

Saving mission of . . . . 157 

Mystery of 42 

His Person 3 

in salvation. Purpose of 161 f 

Revelation of 27 f 

concerning salvation. 

Claim of ...... 150 

the Sent of the Father . . 156 

His consciousness of sin . 134 

The Spirit and the work of 53 f 

The temporal 35 f 

the Word of God .... 28 

Church — 

Christ's reference to the . 264 
in this age. Conflict of 

the 282 f 

and the Kingdom. The . 267 f 
for the Kingdom. Re- 
sponsibility of the ... 275 
responsibility. Fulfillment 

of 275 

Weapons of the .... 286 f 

Claim— 

of Christ for His teaching 4 f 
in relation to the Father. 

Christ's 28 

concerning Himself. 

Christ's 28 , 

concerning the Kingdom. 

Christ's . 221 j 

concerning men. Christ's 28 
concerning salvation. 

Christ's 150 



33° 



Index 



Comforter — 
The Spirit the 63 f 

Coming— 

of Christ. The .... 300 f 

Purpose of Christ's second 305 

of the Son of Man. The 302 f 
of the Spirit. The ... 67 f 

Conception — 

of the Kingdom. Christ's 199 f 
of man. Christ's .... 1 14 f 
of salvation. Christ's 150, 156 

Conduct — 

Sanctity of 192 f 

Conflict— 

of the Church in this age. 

The 282 f 

in the Kingdom . . . . 281 f 
Nature of the Church's . 286 f 

Consciousness — 

of sin. Christ's .... 134 

Continuity — 

of man's personality. The 120 

Conversion — 

Necessity for man's ... 123 

Crisis— 

of the second advent . . . 306 

Cross— 

the entrance to the King- 
dom, The 257 

Necessity for Christ's . . 250 f 
and the Kingdom. Rela- 
tion between the . . . 249 f 

Defilement — 

of man's nature 123 

Demons — 

Belief of N. T. writers in 106 f 
Nature of 107 

Devil— 

The 100 f 

the evil one. The . . . 102 



Devil {continued) — 

a liar and murderer. The 103 
the prince of this world. 
The 104 f 

Disciples — 

The Spirit and the work of 55 f 

Entrance — 

to the Kingdom . . 218 f, 319 f 
to the Kingdom. The 
Cross the 257 



Evil— 

The principle of 



132 



Fact— 

of man. The 113 

of sin. The 127 

Faith— 

The call to 178 f 

the opportunity of salva- 
tion 179 

Father- 
God a 22 f 



Finality— 

of Christ's teaching. The 



14 



Fixity— 

in Sin 136 

Force — 

of Sin. The 130 f 

Forgiveness — 

of sin possible. The . . 137 

Gift — 

of salvation. The ... 166 f 

God— 

a Father 22 f 

Jehovah 24 

The Kingdom of . . . . 207 
Christ the manifestation of 

the name of 188 f 

His method of law ... 27 
Christ's method in reveal- 
ing 18 f 

Christ's relation to . . . 33 



Index 



33 » 



God {continued) — 

to men. Relation of . 
A revelation of ... . 

The rule of 

Irreligious solicitude for 

a Spirit 

Christ the Word of . . 



114 
27 

207 
308 
25 f 

28 



Government — 

Teaching of Christ for 
human 13 

Heaven — 

The Kingdom of ... . 208 

Ideals — 

of anarchy. False . . . 232 

Inheritance — 

of its subjects. The King- 
dom of God the ... 221 f 

Inspiration — 

of obedience. Love the . 192 

Issue — 

of salvation. Sanctity the 186 

Jehovah 24 

Kingdom — 

Anarchy postponing the . 242 

The Church and the . . 267 f 
Responsibility of the 

Church for the .... 275 
Christ's claims concerning 

the 221 

Christ's conception of the 199 f 

Conflict in the 281 f 

Relation between the 

Cross and the .... 249 f 

Entrance to the . . 218 f, 319 f 
The cross the entrance to 

the 257 

of God. The 207 

of God to be established. 

The 224 f 

of heaven. The .... 208 
the inheritance of its sub- 
jects. The 221 f 

Immediate interest in the 199 

of God come to men. The 220 f 

Parables of the 202 f 



Kingdom {continued) — 

Phases of the 226 

Refusal of the 319 

Social Relationships in the 317 

The Spirit and the ... 50 
Subjects responsible for 

the 222 f 

the key-note of Christ's 

teaching. The .... 200 f 

Meaning of the term . . 205 f 

O. T. use of the term . . 206 
the key-note of Christ's 

works. The 204 f 

Law — 

of Love. God's .... 27 
of man's probationary life. 

The 120 f 

Liar— 
The devil a 103 

Logos. The 4 f 

Life- 
Law of man's probation- 
ary 120 f 

adjusted to truth 195 

Lord. The 23 f 

Love— 

the inspiration of obedience 192 

Man — 

Christ's conception of . . 1 14 f 
Christ identified with . . 1 13 
Christ's relation to . . . 38 f 
The coming of the Son of 302 f 
the necessity for his con- 
version 123 

The fact of 113 

to God. Relation of . . 114 
The kingdom of God come 

to 220 f 

the defilement of his na- 
ture 123 

the continuity of his per- 
sonality 120 

physically and spiritually . 119 
The opportunity of his 

restoration 123 f 



33 2 



Index 



Man (continued) — 

concerning salvation. Re- 
sponsibility of ... . 

The Spirit and 

The unity of his being . . 

Manifestation — 

of anarchy. The .... 

of the name of God. Christ 

the 

Method— 

of Christ. The .... 
of Christ in Salvation. The 

Ministry — 

of angels. The future . . 
of angels. The present . 

Mission — 

of Christ. The . . . . 

of Christ. The saving . 

The cross a necessity in 

Christ's 

Murderer — 

The devil a 



Nature — 

of angels. The . 

of the Church's conflict 

The 

of demons. The . 
Defilement of man's 
of sin. The . . . 
of the Spirit. The 

Obedience — 

The call to 

Love the inspiration of . 

the proof of repentance 

and faith 

Office— 

of the Spirit. The . . . 

Opportunity — 

of salvation. Faith the . 

Origin— 

of sin unrevealed. The . 

Parables — 

of the Kingdom. The , 



177 f 

S3 
117 f 



232 f 

188 f 



41 f 
156 



89 
84 f 



39 f 

157 

250 f 
103 

81 f 

286 f 
107 
123 
130 f 
59 

180 f 
192 

181 f 
7 if 

179 
127 
202 f 



Person — 

of Christ. The 



Personality — 

Continuity of man's . . . 

Prince — 

of this world. The devil 
the 

Principle — 
of evil. The 



Purpose — 

of Christ's second coming. 

The 

of Christ in salvation. The 

Reasons — 

of anarchy. The .... 

Redemption — 

Christ's teaching to pro- 
claim 

Relation — 

to God. Christ's . . . . 
to man. Christ's .... 
of man to God. The . . 

Relationships — 

in the Kingdom. Social . 

Repentance — 

The call to 

fundamental to salvation . 

Responsibility — 

of man concerning salva- 
tion. The 

in sin. The 

Restoration — 

Opportunity of man's . . 

Revelation — 

of God. Christ the . . . 
of Himself. Christ's . . 



120 

104 f 
132 



305 
161 f 



239 f 



13 



33 , 
38 f 
114 



317 



176 f 
176 



177 f 
»35 

123 f 

28 
32 f 



Rhema 4f 



Rule- 
Anarchy's false 
of God. The 



236 
207 



Index 



333 



Salvation — 

Claim of Christ concern- 
ing 15°. *5 6 

Christ's conception of . 150, 156 

Faith the opportunity of . 179 

The gift of 166 f 

interpreted . . . 147 f, 157 f 

The method of Christ in . 156 

The purpose of Christ in . 161 f 

Repentance fundamental to 176 
The responsibility of man 

concerning 177 f 

Sanctity the issue of . . . 186 

Sin and 151, 165 

The word 141 

Sanctity— 

of character 188 f 

of conduct 192 f 

the issue of salvation . . 186 

possible of realization . . 196 

Truth the medium of . . 188 f 

Satan 97 

Sin- 
Different aspects of . . . 129 

Bondage in 136 

The fact of 127 

Fixity in 136 

The force of 130 f 

possible. Forgiveness of 137 f 

The nature of .... „ 130 f 
unrevealed. The Origin 

of 127 

Responsibility in ... . 135 

and salvation . . . . 151, 165 

Sinfulness — 

of legitimate things. The 

Solicitude— 

for God. Irreligious . . 



Spirit— 

The being of the . . . 
the Comforter. The . 
The coming of the . . 

God a 

The Holy 

and the Kingdom. The 
and man. The . . . 
The nature of the . . . 
The office of the . . . 



322 

308 

59 
63 f 
67 f 
25 f 
60 

5° 
53 
59 
71 f 



Spirit (continued) — 

Christ's general teaching 
concerning the .... 

of truth. The 

and Christ's work. The . 

Subjects — 

The Kingdom of God in- 
herited by its .... 

Their responsibility for the 
Kingdom of God . . . 

Teaching — 

of Christ authoritative 
of Christ, divine in au 

thority 

of Christ, His claim 
Christ's estimate of His 
of Christ final .... 
of Christ for human gov 

ernment . 
of Christ concerning Him 

self. . . 
The Kingdom the key 

note of Christ's 
of Christ to proclaim re 

demption. The . , 

Truth- 
Life adjusted to . 
the medium of sanctity 
The Spirit of 

Unity— 

of man's being. The , 

Weapons — 

of the Church. 



The 



Word— 

of God. The 

of God. Christ the . . . 

Work— 

of Christ. The Spirit and 
the 

of disciples. The Spirit 
and the 

of God. The 

The Kingdom the inspira- 
tion of Christ's .... 

World— 

The devil prince of this . 



S of 
66 

53 f 



221 f 

222 f 

8 

11 

9 
11 

14 

*3 
32 f 

200 



195, 
188 f 

66 



117 f 

286 f 



5 

28 



53 f 

55 f 
178 f 

204 f 
104 f 



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